Treasury freezes $344M in crypto
- On April 28, Treasury sanctioned 35 people and companies running Iran’s shadow banking system, saying they moved billions for oil sales, weapons purchases, and proxies. - Separately, Tether said it froze more than $344 million in USDT across two wallets after U.S. authorities flagged addresses later added to sanctions lists. - The action extends Washington’s 2025-26 Iran pressure campaign and shows stablecoin issuers can enforce sanctions directly. (home.treasury.gov)
The Treasury Department said April 28 that it sanctioned 35 entities and individuals tied to Iran’s shadow banking system. The agency said the network moved the equivalent of tens of billions of dollars for sanctions evasion and terrorism support. (home.treasury.gov) Treasury said the network helped Iran’s armed forces, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, get paid for illicit oil sales, buy missile and weapons components, and send money to proxy groups. The action was taken by the Office of Foreign Assets Control under Executive Orders 13902 and 13224. (home.treasury.gov) A shadow banking network is a workaround for a country cut off from normal finance. Treasury said Iranian “rahbars” use private companies and thousands of overseas shell companies to route import and export payments outside the formal banking system. (home.treasury.gov) The crypto piece came a few days earlier. Tether said on April 23 that it froze more than $344 million in USDT across two addresses in coordination with the Office of Foreign Assets Control and U.S. law enforcement. (tether.io) Chainalysis said OFAC then updated the Central Bank of Iran designation on April 24 by adding new cryptocurrency addresses to the sanctions list. The firm said the frozen USDT was tied to those newly designated addresses. (chainalysis.com) (ofac.treasury.gov) OFAC’s April 24 sanctions update lists Bank Markazi Jomhouri Islami Iran, the Central Bank of Iran, and says the Specially Designated Nationals list was updated that day. Treasury separately said on April 28 that its broader Iran pressure campaign has sanctioned about 1,000 Iran-related persons, vessels, and aircraft since February 2025. (ofac.treasury.gov) (home.treasury.gov) Treasury also used the April 28 action to warn companies about “toll” payments tied to passage through the Strait of Hormuz. The department said those payments can create sanctions risk for U.S. and non-U.S. persons, including financial institutions. (home.treasury.gov) The freeze shows how a centralized stablecoin works under sanctions pressure. Tether controls a blacklist function, and it said the two wallets were frozen after the addresses were identified, blocking any further movement of the tokens. (tether.io) Treasury’s April 28 statement did not say it had “seized” $344 million in crypto. The public record shows two related steps on different dates: Tether’s April 23 freeze of two wallets and Treasury’s April 28 sanctions on 35 shadow-banking actors. (tether.io) (home.treasury.gov) The immediate result is that the wallets are blocked and the wider network is exposed to sanctions risk. Treasury said any financial institution that facilitates these networks faces “severe consequences.” (home.treasury.gov)
