Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, responded on October 19 to accusations from US senators regarding failures to comply with sanctions against Iran. CEO Paolo Ardoino claims the company freezes addresses on average four weeks before their official designation by OFAC and the Israeli counter-terrorism financing bureau. Tether reports a 94% drop in Iran-linked stablecoin volumes and approximately $550 million in USDT frozen on Iranian wallets. A report by Democratic investigators from the Senate, based on 846 wallets, found that 84% of them used USDT exclusively or nearly exclusively, and Senator Richard Blumenthal has questioned Cantor Fitzgerald, Tether’s financial partner, as well as the US Treasury. Disagreement persists between the cooperation record claimed by Tether and the shortcomings identified by investigators.
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