𝗨𝗦 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘇𝗲𝘀 $𝟯𝟰𝟰m 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗼, 𝗧𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗜𝗿𝗮𝗻’𝘀 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀

Crackdown on digital assets aims to choke off Tehran’s access to billions as US ramps up sanctions enforcement.

Kehinde Adegoke | CNN Report

Washington has frozen $344 million in cryptocurrency linked to Iran, striking at covert financial channels that Tehran has relied on to bypass sanctions. The crackdown on digital assets is part of a broader push to choke off billions in hidden reserves as the US intensifies enforcement of its sanctions regime.

The move, first reported by CNN, comes as shaky diplomatic efforts to reach a deal to end the war continue to stall and the global economy reels from its impact. The administration has sought to increase economic pressure on Iran during the tenuous ceasefire. It’s unclear whether the large sum of money seized will affect Tehran or its approach to the war and negotiations.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday that the agency “is sanctioning multiple wallets tied to Iran.”

“We will track money Tehran tries to move out of the country and target all financial lifelines tied to the regime,” he said.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations declined to comment.

On Thursday, Tether, a digital currency company that facilitates crypto transactions around the world, announced it had “supported the US government in freezing” $344 million in cryptocurrency across two addresses, after information was shared “by several U.S. authorities about activity tied to unlawful conduct.”

A US official told CNN that the government had information linking the currency to Iran.

“Working with blockchain analytics experts, the US government has observed evidence of material links to the Iranian regime, including confirmed transactions with Iranian exchanges and a series of transactions routed through intermediary addresses that interact with Central Bank of Iran-associated wallets,” the official said.

CNN has not independently corroborated that the Tether accounts were linked to Iran.

“The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has used increasingly complex methods to obfuscate its involvement in cross-border transactions using digital assets, as they seek to stabilise the rial and facilitate international trade in an increasingly restricted environment,” the US official said Friday.

The Treasury Department “maintains an active dialogue with numerous US and foreign financial institutions, including digital assets exchanges,” the official said.

Heavily sanctioned regimes like Iran, Russia and North Korea have increasingly turned to cryptocurrency, which is less regulated than the traditional banking system, to generate revenue and skirt sanctions.

Cryptocurrency holdings in Iran reached $7.8 billion in 2025, growing faster for most of the year than in 2024, according to crypto-tracing firm Chainalysis. Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accounted for roughly half of those holdings on the blockchain in the last quarter of 2025, “mirroring its dominance in Iran’s economy more broadly,” Chainalysis said.

“When these wallets were regularly active several years ago, they engaged in frequent, large transfers of up to tens of millions of dollars, largely with other private wallets,” Chainalysis said in a statement to CNN on Friday, referring to the Tether accounts that the US government had frozen. “These patterns are consistent with how we’ve observed other known IRGC wallets move funds on chain.”

Daniel Tannebaum, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said that the freeze of the assets is “meaningful,” but given how sanctioned Iran is, “I don’t think it necessarily moves the needle for thwarting Iran’s attempts to continue operating in the state of the conflict as it is right now.”

Iran has been sanctioned for decades and has put mechanisms in place to adapt, he said. Some countries have continued to do business with Iran despite the sanctions.

“The way to get at Iran at this point, because Iran is truly sanctioned out, is to go with the third country actors enabling them,” including China, he told CNN.

Later on Friday, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on a China-based independent teapot refinery for purchasing billions of dollars in Iranian petroleum.

Tannebaum also noted that Iran has “been leveraging crypto-related funds for years.”

“They will use it with actors that are trying to stay outside of the US banking system,” said Tannebaum, who is also a partner at Oliver Wyman. Iran is “really trying to use any methods they can to pay for additional armaments, military support that they need at present.”

Last year, hackers widely believed to be operating in support of or on behalf of Israel stole the equivalent of about $90 million from Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange amid Israeli military strikes on Iran.

PIX CAPTION: A billboard with a picture of Iran’s flag on a building in Tehran, Iran, on January 24, 2026.

Majid Asgaripour/Wana News Agency/Reuters

EFCC Arrests Cameroonian Businessman over Alleged ₦1.5bn Bank Fraud – TheDiggerNews: