Stablecoin issuer Tether mentioned it helped authorities freeze almost $550 million in Iran-linked USDT throughout 2026, as a Senate Democrat referred to as for an investigation into the stablecoin issuer on Monday.
In a press release on Monday, the corporate said it has been working carefully with worldwide regulation enforcement for years. This 12 months alone, it froze greater than $130 million in USDT throughout 4 wallets, and in April, it froze greater than $344 million linked to the Central Financial institution of Iran.
“Tether has persistently demonstrated that USDT shouldn’t be a haven for sanctioned actors, terrorist organizations or legal networks,” mentioned Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.
The assertion from Tether got here as Democratic investigators on the Senate Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigations released a report alleging USDT had grow to be a key channel for Iran to evade sanctions.
Investigators discovered that 84% of 846 crypto wallets sanctioned over ties to Iran had transacted solely or almost solely in USDT. The findings prompted US Senator Richard Blumenthal to name on the Treasury and Justice departments to research potential sanctions violations.
Tether mentioned its cooperation with authorities globally had resulted in greater than $4.9 billion in property being frozen, together with greater than $2.4 billion related to US authorities.
“The file is public: the DOJ, FBI, Secret Service, HSI, OFAC and authorities around the globe have repeatedly labored with Tether to hint, freeze and get better property. We are going to proceed to make that functionality out there to authorities working to cease terrorism, sanctions evasion, fraud and different severe crimes,” Ardoino mentioned.
Associated: Manhattan US Attorney leading probe into Binance’s Iran compliance: Bloomberg
