The US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has found that the Iranian regime widely used Tether's USDT stablecoin to evade international sanctions. The inquiry, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, documented hundreds of millions of dollars in USDT flowing through wallets connected to Iranian oil transactions, the country's central bank, and entities aligned with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran's Central Bank accumulated at least $507 million in USDT as it sought to maintain economic functions under heavy financial restrictions.
Government enforcement actions
On June 4, 2026, Blumenthal sent a formal records demand to Tether seeking documentation about USDT's role in Iranian and Russian shadow banking networks.
Two days later, the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges—Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex—citing ties to IRGC money laundering operations and effectively cutting them off from the legitimate financial system.
On September 14, 2026, the Department of Justice filed a civil forfeiture complaint in New York seeking to seize approximately $61.2 million in USDT from wallets that processed illicit proceeds from Iranian black-market oil sales. The complaint alleged those funds directly benefited the Iranian government.
These actions fall under an operation the government has dubbed Operation Economic Fury. Since April 2026, nearly $1 billion in Iran-linked digital assets have been sanctioned or frozen under the initiative.
Tether's asset freezes
Tether froze over $344 million in USDT in April 2026 tied to wallets linked to Iran's Central Bank, followed by an additional $131 million freeze in July 2026 targeting the same network. Combined, those freezes represent roughly $475 million in sanctioned assets locked at the token level through Tether's smart contract capability to freeze specific wallets.
