The National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing of Israel (NBCTF) has published a list of 187 cryptocurrency addresses that are linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a group sanctioned and appointed as terrorist of the United States, the EU, UK and Canada.
According to Blockchain Analytics company Elliptic, these addresses collectively received $ 1.5 billion in USDT, Tether’s Dollar-Pegged StableCoin. However, Elliptic warned that it cannot verify that all these funds are directly linked to IRGC, as some wallets may belong to exchanges or services used by several customers.
The use of USDT exposes such wallets to one of Tether’s most powerful compliance tools: blacklist. Of the 187 addresses marked by Israel, 39 were already frozen by Tether from September 13, which prevented further transfers of approx. 1.5 million dollars in USDT.
Iran’s revolutionary guard has been tied to illegal crypto activity for years. Just last week, the US Ministry of Justice seized nearly $ 600,000 in USDT from an Iranian national accused of building drone navigation systems for IRGC.
In December 2024, the US Treasury sanctioned targeted wallets linked to the IRGC network that moved more than $ 300 million in stablecoins via a intermediary connected to Yemens Houthier.
And in June 2025, Pro-Israel Hacker Group Gonjeshke Darande (“Reddary Sparrow”) stole $ 90 million from Iranian Crypto Exchange Nobitex, which Elliptic and others have linked to IRGC activities, including ransomware operations. The hackers “burned” the stolen agents in vanity Wallias marked with anti-Irgc slogans and even leaked Nobitex’s source code.
The hack was seen as a hammer blasting against Iran, which is alleged to have used crypto to avoid sanctions.
