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Iran’s Crypto Lifeline Hit As US Freezes $344 Million In Funds

Iran had already begun collecting crypto payments from ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz when US authorities moved to cut off the money.

On Friday, the Treasury Department announced it had frozen over $340 million in cryptocurrency tied to Iranian military and political groups — the same amount stablecoin issuer Tether had quietly locked down just 24 hours earlier.

Bitcoin Tolls At A Global Chokepoint

Reports say Iran had been charging vessels in Bitcoin for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes for oil and other cargo. Reports disclose that Iran had already banked revenue from those crypto tolls.

The move came amid an ongoing standoff over the strait, where Iranian forces reportedly attacked three ships and US naval forces established a blockade.

US President Donald Trump said this week that the US and Iran had reached a ceasefire agreement. But tensions on the water tell a different story. The attacks on commercial ships and the US blockade suggest the situation remains far from settled.

Treasury Moves Against Iranian Wallets

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent posted Friday on X that the Office of Foreign Assets Control had sanctioned two cryptocurrency addresses on the Tron blockchain. The wallets, officials said, were connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hizballah. Combined, they held $344 million.

“We will follow the money that Tehran is desperately attempting to move outside of the country and target all financial lifelines tied to the regime,” Bessent said. The freeze, he added, was part of a broader effort to “systematically degrade Tehran’s ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds.”

The announcement came one day after Tether disclosed that it had frozen over $344 million of its USDt stablecoin at the request of US law enforcement. At the time, the company cited “activity tied to unlawful conduct” but did not name Iran. Treasury’s Friday notice made the connection explicit.

The US and Israel had launched joint airstrikes against Iran back in late February. Since then, American financial pressure on Tehran has intensified across both traditional and crypto markets.

Crypto’s Limits As A Sanctions Workaround

Iran’s attempt to use cryptocurrency as a financial workaround ran into a hard wall. The Tron addresses flagged by OFAC now appear on the agency’s Specially Designated Nationals list, effectively making them off-limits for any US person or entity to deal with.

The episode shows how Iran’s crypto lifeline, including the $344 million frozen across those two Tron wallets, can still be disrupted through centralized stablecoin issuers willing to act on law enforcement requests. Tether’s compliance with the US request happened before the public sanctions notice was even issued.

Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView



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