Tether Freezes $550M in USDT Linked to Iran-Related Addresses

ChainCatcher report: On September 28, Tether, the issuer of the stablecoin USDT, announced that actions involving USDT in 2026 have frozen approximately $550 million, with associated wallets identified by U.S. authorities as linked to the Central Bank of Iran and Iran’s sanctions network. Tether stated that its cooperation with U.S. and international authorities has supported over 2,900 global investigations, more than 1,600 of which involved U.S. law enforcement agencies. According to Tether, in April 2026, it assisted in freezing over $344 million in USDT from two addresses based on information provided by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and U.S. law enforcement. The following day, OFAC designated these addresses as digital currency identifiers associated with the Central Bank of Iran, linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force and Hezbollah. In July 2026, the Treasury expanded its designations to include four additional TRON addresses, resulting in the freezing of over $130 million in USDT across these four wallets. Tether’s CEO, Paolo Ardoino, stated that USDT is not a haven for sanctioned actors, terrorist organizations, or criminal networks, and that public blockchains enable authorities to track fund flows, allowing Tether to act when credible information is provided by law enforcement. Tether also noted that it collaborates with over 340 law enforcement agencies across 67 countries, and its wallet freezing policy is aligned with OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list.