U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Thursday that American authorities will seize approximately $1 billion in cryptocurrency from Iran. Speaking at Newsmax's NPolicy Summit in Washington, D.C., Bessent said the U.S. knows the location of the funds and is moving forward with seizure operations.
"We're probably going to seize $1 billion of crypto this week," Bessent said. "We know where it is. We are isolating them. We did have a maximum pressure campaign, now we have an absolute isolation campaign and it's working."
Bessent did not specify which cryptocurrencies would be seized or the method of seizure. The Treasury Secretary previously indicated that U.S. authorities had seized Iranian crypto holdings in the form of stablecoins such as Tether's USDT.
Iran has increasingly relied on cryptocurrencies to circumvent U.S. economic sanctions. The U.S. began targeting crypto wallets linked to the Iranian regime in April. The Financial Times reported last month that Iran was using bitcoin to settle cross-border transactions through Iranian crypto exchanges after the central bank advised citizens to support the economy through such measures. Iran also established a bitcoin-backed insurance service for its shipping companies earlier this year.
President Donald Trump's administration revived its "maximum pressure" campaign weeks after taking office. A national security memorandum signed in February 2025 directed the Treasury to sustain operations against Iran's shadow banking, money laundering, and sanctions-evasion networks.
