Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, stated that the company froze Iran-linked crypto addresses on average four weeks before official designations by OFAC and Israel’s NBCTF, while attributing a 94% decline in Iran-linked stablecoin volumes to those actions. A Senate report titled “Tethered to Terrorism” published on September 28 examined 846 wallets between June 2021 and August 2026, finding that 84% used USDT almost exclusively. One specific case involved 39 wallets designated by NBCTF in June 2023 for ties to Hezbollah: Tether froze only 5 of them, allowing over $34.6 million in USDT to leave the remaining 34 wallets before their freeze in March 2024. Senator Richard Blumenthal referred the findings to the Treasury and Justice departments to examine potential sanctions and banking-law violations.
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