US Freezes $344 Million in Tether's USDT, Citing Iran Sanctions and 'Economic Fury'

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 initiative known as 'Economic Fury'. The freeze is the result of sanctions imposed by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on multiple crypto wallets linked to Iran. According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the US will closely track and target all financial channels tied to the Iranian regime, as Tehran attempts to move funds outside the country. The sanctions follow Tether's decision to blacklist two blockchain addresses holding $344 million in USDT. A US official revealed that the sanctioned wallets had significant ties to the Iranian regime, including transactions with Iranian exchanges and connections to wallets associated with the Central Bank of Iran. The Iranian central bank has been using digital assets to conceal cross-border transactions. Authorities claim that Iran has been increasingly relying on crypto 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 financial institutions to track illicit flows tied to sanctioned entities.