The United States Treasury Department, under Secretary Scott Bessent, has announced the seizure of nearly $500 million in cryptocurrency assets linked to Iran, marking one of the largest single enforcement actions against the country's on-chain infrastructure. This figure surpasses the previously reported $344 million in USDT that was frozen by Tether at the request of U.S. authorities.
The seizures are part of Operation Economic Fury, a campaign ordered by President Donald Trump in March 2025 to escalate financial pressure on Iran amid active nuclear negotiations. The operation targets not only crypto assets but also bank accounts, overseas property, and other holdings connected to Iranian officials and networks. Secretary Bessent stated, "We are freezing bank accounts everywhere. More importantly, we are making people less willing to deal with the regime."
The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) tied the frozen $344 million specifically to USDT wallets used in Iran's oil payment masking operations. Tether complied by blacklisting the flagged addresses. However, enforcement gaps persist. Between February 28 and March 2, following US-Israel strikes, on-chain analytics detected $10.3 million in crypto outflows from Iran-linked Bitcoin wallets, with some wallets showing historical exposure to IRGC-identified addresses.
Iran's crypto ecosystem was valued at over $7.78 billion in 2025, growing faster than the previous year. The Central Bank of Iran purchased more than $500 million in USDT to circumvent SWIFT-dependent banking rails. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accounts for half of all on-chain activity, using subsidized electricity for Bitcoin mining to generate clean, non-sanctionable money. Freshly mined Bitcoin carries no transaction history, making it immune to retroactive freezing.
Geopolitical tensions have accelerated crypto integration. Iranian authorities announced plans to require oil ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz to pay tolls in Bitcoin, formalizing cryptocurrency's role in sovereign trade infrastructure. Since February 2025, OFAC has sanctioned more than 1,000 Iran-related people, vessels, and aircraft. The Treasury has also targeted 35 entities and individuals tied to Iran's shadow banking network, a Chinese oil refinery, and shipping firms linked to Iranian crude exports.
Secretary Bessent noted that Iran is facing a severe currency crisis, with its currency falling 60% to 70% against the U.S. dollar. The Treasury indicated that more designations are coming, with potential coordination with the DOJ and FinCEN to target virtual asset service providers processing Iranian flows and to pressure stablecoin issuers to implement proactive blocking rather than reactive blacklisting.
