US Imposes $344 Million USDT Freeze in Crackdown on Iran's Financial Networks

In its latest move to disrupt Iran's financial networks, the US Treasury Department has frozen $344 million in cryptocurrency as part of a broader campaign known as 'Economic Fury.' According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned several cryptocurrency wallets linked to Iran, resulting in the freeze of $344 million in cryptocurrency. Bessent stated that the US will track and target all financial channels tied to the Iranian regime, as part of a concerted effort to disrupt Tehran's attempts to move funds outside the country. The move follows Tether's decision to blacklist two blockchain addresses on the Tron network, which held a combined total of $344 million in USDT. A US official revealed that the sanctioned wallets had significant connections to the Iranian regime, including transactions with Iranian exchanges and links to intermediary addresses associated with the Central Bank of Iran. The Treasury Department has accused Iran's central bank of utilizing digital assets to conceal cross-border transactions. As the US increases pressure on Iran, authorities have noted that the country has been increasingly relying on cryptocurrency to circumvent restrictions, using complex transaction patterns to obscure its involvement in cross-border payments and support trade flows under sanctions pressure. The Treasury Department's OFAC is taking aggressive action against both traditional front companies and the use of digital assets, while also working with blockchain analytics firms and coordinating with financial institutions to track illicit flows tied to sanctioned entities.