đ Senate Report: Iranâs Shadow Banking, 84% of Transactions Route Through USDT
On September 28, a report was issued by Democratic members of a standing investigative panel in the U.S. Senate. The conclusion is direct: USDT is a lifeline of funding for Iranâs shadow banking network.
The numbers are in the report. The investigation team reviewed 846 crypto wallets sanctioned for being linked to Iran, and 84% carried outâor almost exclusively carried outâUSDT transactions. The report estimates that the Iranian government moved roughly $2 billion through crypto channels last year.
The allegations are even heavier. The report says Tether ârepeatedly failedâ to block Iran-related wallets; freezes sometimes took weeks, and when it did respond to law-enforcement requests, it did not actually blacklist the wallets. Before 2024, it also lacked systematic freezing of wallets named by anti-terrorism agencies. The exact wording is that this lack of deterrence invited abuse.
Tether responded the same day. It denied the claims. A Monday blog post laid out this yearâs actions: assisting in freezing nearly $550 million worth of Iran-related USDT, with four transactions totaling more than $130 million; one in April accounted for $344 million related to the Central Bank of Iran. The companyâs stated position is that, in total, it has cooperated in freezing more than $4.9 billion, with more than $2.4 billion coming from U.S.-side requests. CEO Paolo Ardoino said that USDT is not a safe haven for sanctioned parties or criminal networks.
Senator Richard Blumenthal has already asked the Treasury Department and the Department of Justice to open cases to investigate and prosecute violations of sanctions. The document was first disclosed by The Wall Street Journal.
Put it into this yearâs timeline. On August 7, the Treasury sanctioned two Iran-linked exchanges, Shelbit and Aban Tether. âOperation Outcast,â launched in August, targeted shadow banking. The sanction list came first, the congressional report followedâtwo lines converging on the same goal.
I wrote this as well: the four BTC price sources landed between $83,708 and $83,750, and over the past 24 hours it has been basically flat. Around $2,690 for ETH.
The reportâs real weak spot is the total figure. It doesnât provide the overall volume of USDT transactions used by Iranâonly a line saying âabout $2 billion last year.â The gap is more worth watching than the accusations. Next, there are two things to monitor: whether the Treasury takes the case, and whether a stablecoin issuerâs freezing obligations will shift from cooperating with enforcement actions to having to prove its innocence.
$BTC $ETH
#äžæŹèȘćœé 瀟ćșBaoluoćžćè”æŹ #Bitcoin #Iran sanctions
On September 28, a report was issued by Democratic members of a standing investigative panel in the U.S. Senate. The conclusion is direct: USDT is a lifeline of funding for Iranâs shadow banking network.
The numbers are in the report. The investigation team reviewed 846 crypto wallets sanctioned for being linked to Iran, and 84% carried outâor almost exclusively carried outâUSDT transactions. The report estimates that the Iranian government moved roughly $2 billion through crypto channels last year.
The allegations are even heavier. The report says Tether ârepeatedly failedâ to block Iran-related wallets; freezes sometimes took weeks, and when it did respond to law-enforcement requests, it did not actually blacklist the wallets. Before 2024, it also lacked systematic freezing of wallets named by anti-terrorism agencies. The exact wording is that this lack of deterrence invited abuse.
Tether responded the same day. It denied the claims. A Monday blog post laid out this yearâs actions: assisting in freezing nearly $550 million worth of Iran-related USDT, with four transactions totaling more than $130 million; one in April accounted for $344 million related to the Central Bank of Iran. The companyâs stated position is that, in total, it has cooperated in freezing more than $4.9 billion, with more than $2.4 billion coming from U.S.-side requests. CEO Paolo Ardoino said that USDT is not a safe haven for sanctioned parties or criminal networks.
Senator Richard Blumenthal has already asked the Treasury Department and the Department of Justice to open cases to investigate and prosecute violations of sanctions. The document was first disclosed by The Wall Street Journal.
Put it into this yearâs timeline. On August 7, the Treasury sanctioned two Iran-linked exchanges, Shelbit and Aban Tether. âOperation Outcast,â launched in August, targeted shadow banking. The sanction list came first, the congressional report followedâtwo lines converging on the same goal.
I wrote this as well: the four BTC price sources landed between $83,708 and $83,750, and over the past 24 hours it has been basically flat. Around $2,690 for ETH.
The reportâs real weak spot is the total figure. It doesnât provide the overall volume of USDT transactions used by Iranâonly a line saying âabout $2 billion last year.â The gap is more worth watching than the accusations. Next, there are two things to monitor: whether the Treasury takes the case, and whether a stablecoin issuerâs freezing obligations will shift from cooperating with enforcement actions to having to prove its innocence.
$BTC $ETH
#äžæŹèȘćœé 瀟ćșBaoluoćžćè”æŹ #Bitcoin #Iran sanctions
