US Senate Finds 84% of Sanctioned Iranian Wallets Use Tether's USDT Stablecoin

A US Senate Democrats' investigation has found that Tether's USDT stablecoin is being heavily used by Iran to evade sanctions. The probe, led by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, discovered that among over 800 sanctioned crypto wallets reviewed, about 84% used USDT as their main or exclusive asset.

The investigation also found that Iran's Central Bank had accumulated at least $507 million in USDT to operate under sanctions. This comes amid the US Treasury's Operation Economic Outcast campaign to cut Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG) off from crypto networks.

Tether has pushed back against these findings, claiming it has already frozen nearly $550 million in Iran-linked USDT this year at the request of U.S. authorities. The company also pointed out that it has cooperated with U.S. and international law enforcement, including freezing more than $344 million across two addresses in April and over $130 million across four additional TRON wallets in July.