The Trump administration has frozen $344 million in cryptocurrency allegedly linked to Iran, in what officials describe as part of a broader financial pressure campaign dubbed “Economic Fury,” as diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict remain stalled.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Friday that the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) was sanctioning multiple cryptocurrency wallets tied to Iran. “We will follow the money that Tehran is desperately attempting to move outside of the country and target all financial lifelines tied to the regime,” Bessent said.
The two frozen addresses on the Tron blockchain held approximately $213 million and $131 million in USDT respectively. The accounts were blacklisted within minutes of each other.
Tether, the digital currency company that facilitated the transactions, confirmed it had supported the US government in freezing the funds across the two addresses following information shared by several US authorities about activity tied to unlawful conduct.
A US official said investigators had observed material links to the Iranian regime, including confirmed transactions with Iranian exchanges and a series of transactions routed through intermediary addresses connected to wallets associated with the Central Bank of Iran (CBI). “The Central Bank of Iran has used increasingly complex methods to obfuscate its involvement in cross-border transactions using digital assets, as they seek to stabilize the rial and facilitate international trade in an increasingly restricted environment,” the official said.
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis said the frozen wallets had previously engaged in frequent, large transfers of up to tens of millions of dollars, largely with other private wallets, adding that the patterns were consistent with known Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) wallet behaviour. Iran’s total cryptocurrency holdings reached $7.8 billion in 2025, according to Chainalysis.
On the same day, the Treasury also sanctioned a China-based independent oil refinery for purchasing billions of dollars in Iranian petroleum.
Analysts cautioned that the action, while significant, may have limited strategic impact. Daniel Tannebaum of the Atlantic Council described the freeze as meaningful but said it likely would not move the needle given how deeply Iran has already adapted to decades of sanctions. “The way to get at Iran at this point, because Iran is truly sanctioned out, is to go with the third country actors enabling them,” including China, he said. Iran is “really trying to use any methods they can to pay for additional armaments and military support.”
The Iranian mission to the United Nations declined to comment.
