US turns stablecoin issuer Tether into a financial weapon against Iran, freezing nearly $500 million
US authorities have used Tether’s control over USDT to freeze about $475 million linked to Iran in under three months, extending sanctions enforcement beyond traditional banks. On July 14, OFAC sanctioned four Tron wallets holding about $131 million in USDT, tied to the Central Bank of Iran. That followed Tether’s April freeze of more than $344 million in two other Tron wallets after coordination with US law enforcement. The campaign is part of Operation Economic Fury, which targets exchanges, intermediaries, and blockchain addresses used to move dollar-denominated assets and evade sanctions. In June, Treasury also sanctioned major Iranian crypto exchanges, including Nobitex, which it said handled a large share of Iran’s crypto inflows and helped the central bank acquire stablecoins. The freezes show a key difference between USDT and decentralized assets like Bitcoin: Tether can block addresses and make tokens unusable, even though the balances remain visible on-chain.
