Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated the corporate froze Iran crypto addresses a mean of 4 weeks earlier than official designations by the U.S. Workplace of International Property Management (OFAC) and Israel’s Nationwide Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF), whereas attributing a 94% decline in Iran-linked stablecoin volumes to these actions.
That is a part of Tether’s response to a Senate report; the corporate has not revealed the measurement interval, baseline, deal with set, or asset scope behind the quantity decline. Ardoino additionally stated Tether froze reported addresses.
Senator Blumenthal's "evaluation" of Tether's sanctions report misses that, since 2023, Tether froze on common 4 weeks previous to OFAC & NBCTF official sanction designation and for 99% of the instances Tether froze the reported addresses earlier than Chainalysis labelled them.
Tether…— Paolo Ardoino
(@paoloardoino) October 19, 2026
In an X submit, Ardoino challenged Senator Richard Blumenthal’s interpretation of the Senate findings. His four-week common refers back to the time between Tether freezes and official OFAC or NBCTF designations. The separate 99% determine considerations when Tether acted relative to Chainalysis labels.
The report, Tethered to Terrorism, was revealed on September 28 by Democratic workers of the Senate Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigations. It examined 846 wallets sanctioned or focused for seizure over hyperlinks to Iran and its proxies between June 2021 and August 2026. The report discovered that 84% transacted completely or almost completely in USDT.
One case within the report complicates Tether’s account of early motion. Israel’s NBCTF designated 39 wallets tied to Hezbollah financier Tawfiq Muhammad Sa’id Al-Regulation in June 2023. Tether froze 5, whereas the opposite 34 remained open till March 2024; greater than $34.6 million in USDT left these wallets within the interim.
The report credited Tether with responding to designations “in some cases” since late 2023, whereas describing its total effort as uneven and inconsistent. The Senate findings concern each USDT’s use by the wallets and the timing of motion in particular person instances, inserting the corporate’s timing protection alongside a particular interval of continued transfers.
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Practically $550 Million From Iran in Separate 2026 Tether Freeze Disclosures
In a disclosure launched on September 28, Tether stated it had supported freezes of almost $550 million in Iran-linked USDT throughout 2026. The overall included greater than $344 million throughout two addresses in April and greater than $130 million throughout 4 wallets in July. Tether didn’t itemize the roughly $76 million steadiness.
The Senate’s 84% determine measures the share of its pockets pattern that used USDT nearly completely; it’s not a freeze-timing statistic. Tether’s separate quantity declare considerations Iran-linked stablecoin exercise, a distinction that issues when assessing the issuer’s position in cross-border fee flows and the visibility of pockets exercise to blockchain analytics companies.
TRM Labs estimated Iranian crypto quantity at about $11.4 billion in 2024 and $10 billion in 2025, a decline of roughly 12% throughout the broader market. CoinGecko put USDT’s market capitalization at about $183 billion. The bigger market context makes Tether’s claimed discount consequential for compliance scrutiny, whereas the corporate’s method to regulatory compliance controls stays a central challenge within the dispute.
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Treasury and Justice Referrals Are The Subsequent Step
Blumenthal, the subcommittee’s rating member, referred the findings to the Treasury and Justice departments. His referral asks officers to contemplate potential sanctions and banking-law violations, together with below the Worldwide Emergency Financial Powers Act and the Financial institution Secrecy Act.
The speedy institutional query is whether or not both division acts on that referral. The report additionally stated Tether had confirmed receipt of the subcommittee’s June letter with out responding to it as of the report’s publication.
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