US seeks $61M in USDT allegedly tied to sanctioned Iranian oil sales

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a civil forfeiture complaint seeking control of about $61.19 million in Tether’s USDT stablecoin, which prosecutors say originated from illicit sales of sanctioned Iranian oil. According to the court filing, the funds were frozen by Tether across ten addresses on the Tron blockchain in 2025 and are alleged to have been destined to support Iran’s government and military forces, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The complaint identifies two Hong Kong-incorporated companies, Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale, as parties that used Binance accounts to route proceeds from oil sold to purchasers in China. Prosecutors say a linked network of addresses handled in excess of $1.5 billion in transfers, including payments to money-transmission businesses tied to the IRGC, various cryptocurrency addresses and an Iranian exchange.

Under a seizure warrant described in the filing, the FBI would take custody of the frozen tokens by having Tether destroy them and issue replacement tokens of equal value that would then be transferred to an FBI-controlled hardware wallet. The DOJ emphasized that the allegations in the civil forfeiture complaint have not been proven and that the government would obtain permanent ownership of the assets only if a court enters a forfeiture judgment.

Binance responded to media inquiries by saying the exchange does not permit transactions with sanctioned individuals and that it will cooperate with law enforcement, but the filing does not allege wrongdoing by Binance nor name the exchange as a defendant. Cointelegraph reported it had contacted Tether for comment but had not received a response by publication.

The enforcement action arrives amid broader U.S. measures targeting Iran’s digital asset activities: the Treasury expanded its Iran sanctions framework in August to encompass the country’s crypto sector, enabling authorities to target foreign entities operating in or supporting that sector. The DOJ filing also follows other allegations — including a Treasury claim that a UAE-based broker, Ivan Obukhov, processed more than $100 million in crypto payments since 2023 to facilitate Iranian oil sales for the IRGC’s Quds Force. The move comes as regional hostilities have disrupted oil infrastructure and shipping routes, with recent attacks blamed for taking Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline offline and contributing to midday Brent and WTI price increases reported around $107.59 and $103.35 per barrel, respectively.