The US Treasury added four Tron addresses to OFAC's existing Central Bank of Iran designation on Friday, and Tether moved fast. Within hours, the stablecoin issuer froze $131 million in USDT across those wallets — no court order required. The addresses had received more than $165 million in stablecoins, though $34 million had already been moved out before the freeze landed.
Tether's track record on freezes
This isn't Tether's first time cutting off the Central Bank of Iran. Cumulative frozen funds now total nearly $475 million. Overall, seized Iranian crypto has reached roughly $1 billion. Tether says it has frozen about $4.7 billion tied to crime and returned $1.1 billion to victims. The company's ability to freeze USDT without a judicial order is baked into its smart contract — a feature that critics call centralized control and supporters call compliance.
Circle takes a different approach
Circle, the issuer of USDC, doesn't freeze assets without a strict legal process. The company is currently facing a Wisconsin criminal complaint for defying a court order in a romance scam case. That contrast is sharp: Tether leans in on sanctions enforcement, Circle leans on due process. For now, USDT dominates the stablecoin market with about 59% of the $310 billion total, per DefiLlama.
Washington's broader crackdown
OFAC already sanctioned Nobitex and other Iranian exchanges in June for helping move the bank's stablecoins. Iran's crypto network is estimated at $7.7 billion, and Washington is systematically dismantling the infrastructure it uses to bypass sanctions. Friday's freeze isn't a seizure — Iran still holds the wallets, but it can't spend or send the tokens. That's a powerful choke point when the network is built on USDT.
The practical effect: the Central Bank of Iran's crypto stash is now largely immobilized. Unless it finds a way to convert the assets before Tether or regulators step in, the money sits frozen. And given the speed of this freeze, the window for moving funds is closing fast.
