Tether Says It Helped Freeze Nearly $550 Million in Iran-Linked USDT

Tether said it helped freeze close to $550 million worth of USDT that were linked to addresses associated with Iran. The company’s statement framed the action as part of efforts to prevent sanctioned or illicit actors from using its stablecoin. On the same day, a Senate minority report examined blockchain activity tied to Iran and affiliated proxies and concluded that USDT was the primary token used in a large majority of the wallets analyzed. Specifically, the report found that USDT accounted for the dominant share of activity in 84% of the 846 wallets included in the study. The two disclosures together draw attention to both private-sector compliance measures and congressional oversight of on-chain flows involving sanctioned jurisdictions. Tether’s account emphasizes the technical measures a token issuer can take to freeze assets, while the Senate minority report documents the prevalence of a particular stablecoin in wallets flagged as Iran-linked. Neither source in the excerpt provided details about the specific wallets frozen, the mechanics of the freezes, or the broader methodology of the Senate minority report beyond the summary statistic. Further public disclosures or the full report would be needed for a more detailed understanding of which entities were affected and how the conclusions were reached.