US plans to seize $1B in crypto linked to Iran this week: Scott Bessent

US Plans to Seize $1 Billion in Crypto Linked to Iran

Background

The US Treasury Department has announced several digital asset seizures related to sanctions on Iran as part of US sanctions. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the country was “probably gonna seize a billion dollars of crypto this week” as part of its crackdowns on Iran. Speaking at the Newsmax NPolicy Summit on Thursday, Bessent said the planned cryptocurrency seizure was part of the US sanctions on Iran amid the country’s most recent military conflict, which started in February. He did not clarify whether the digital assets targeted specific exchanges or resulted from intervention by stablecoin issuers. “We know where it is, and we are isolating them,” said Bessent to Newsmax’s Greta Van Susteren. He added the move was part of a strategy of economically cutting off Iran. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, announced in August that it was targeting crypto exchanges facilitating the transfer of funds to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Bessent said at the time that the US planned to “increase the economic pressure” on Iran, focusing on financial networks funding the country’s regime “in dollars, rials, or crypto.” The US Treasury Secretary made a similar claim in an April interview, saying that authorities had seized $500 million of crypto tied to Iran. Stablecoin issuer Tether reported in September that it had frozen $550 million worth of USDt (USDT) in 2026 as part of US authorities’ sanctions on Iran, including $344 million alone in April.