The U.S. Treasury Department said Friday that a $344 million cryptocurrency freeze is part of its latest effort to disrupt financial networks linked to Iran.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an X post that Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning several crypto wallets linked to Iran, resulting in the freezing of $344 million in cryptocurrency.
“We will follow the money that Tehran is desperately trying to move out of the country and target all financial lifelines linked to the regime,” Bessent said, adding that the effort is part of a broader campaign called “Economic Rage.”
The post follows action taken Thursday by stablecoin issuer Tether, which blacklisted two blockchain addresses on Tron that hold a total of $344 million in USDT.
The company did not return a request for comment.
A US official told CoinDesk that the sanctioned wallets showed material links to the Iranian regime, including transactions with Iranian exchanges and routing through intermediary addresses linked to wallets linked to Iran’s central bank. According to the finance ministry, Iran’s central bank has been leaning into digital assets to try to mask its cross-border transactions.
The authorities said Iran has increasingly turned to crypto to circumvent restrictions, using more complex transaction patterns to obscure its involvement in cross-border payments and support trade flows under sanctions pressure.
Treasury’s OFAC is trying to turn up the pressure by moving aggressively against both the traditional front companies and the use of digital assets, the official said. Meanwhile, it sanctioned Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery Co. on Friday, accusing the China-based independent refiners of playing a major role in Iran’s oil economy.
The US agency said it continues to work with blockchain analytics firms and maintains coordination with financial institutions, including crypto exchanges, as it tracks illicit flows linked to sanctioned entities.
