The United States added four crypto wallets linked to the Central Bank of Iran to its sanctions list after a ceasefire agreement between the two countries broke down and air and drone strikes resumed.
The four Tron-blockchain wallets had received more than $165 million in stablecoins, according to Chainalysis. Tether blocked $131 million worth of USDT held by the accounts, although some of the funds had been moved before the freeze.
Sanctioning wallets gives exchanges, custodians, and compliance companies a clear set of addresses to target. Iran’s central bank has accumulated at least $507 million worth of USDT, according to Elliptic, using the token to back the rial.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has said its published wallet lists are not exhaustive, meaning other addresses controlled by the bank may still qualify as blocked property.
Tuesday’s OFAC update expands an existing designation rather than imposing new penalties. The Central Bank of Iran has been blocked under US counterterrorism authorization since 2019 for its support of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and Hezbollah.
