Tether Says It Helped Freeze Nearly $550 Million in Iran-Linked USDT in 2026
Tether says 2026 freezes of Iran-linked USDT approached $550 million, as Senate Democratic investigators scrutinize the stablecoin’s role in sanctioned networks.
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Tether said on September 28 that actions involving its USDT stablecoin had frozen approximately $550 million in wallets U.S. authorities identified as connected to Iran's central bank and sanctions networks during 2026.
In its statement, Tether said it supported U.S. authorities in freezing more than $344 million in USDT across two addresses in April. The company said the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, added those addresses to its sanctions listing for the Central Bank of Iran the following day. Tether also cited more than $130 million frozen across four wallets in July, when OFAC added four TRON addresses to the bank's listing.
Separately, Democratic investigators on the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report on September 28 arguing that USDT has become a major payment channel in Iran-linked financial networks. They said their analysis covered 846 wallets sanctioned or targeted for seizure over alleged connections to Iran and regional groups, and that 84% had transacted exclusively or nearly exclusively in USDT. Those are the investigators' findings, not a conclusion adopted by the full Senate.
