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ZEC $1,130 Tether's Ardoino disputes Iran report with four-week freeze claim
Tether's CEO says the issuer froze flagged addresses before official designations, while Senate investigators point to wallets that stayed open.
Key takeaways
- Four weeks on average. Ardoino says Tether froze addresses an average of four weeks before official designations since 2023.
- 99% before labels. Ardoino claims Tether froze 99% of reported addresses before Chainalysis labeled them.
- 34 wallets later. Senate staff said Tether blocked 34 of 39 flagged wallets only in March 2024.
What happened
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino pushed back on Senator Richard Blumenthal's Iran sanctions report in an Oct. 19 post. He said Tether has frozen flagged addresses an average of four weeks before official designations since 2023. He said the comparison covered designations by the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and Israel's National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing.
Ardoino also claimed that 99% of reported addresses were frozen before Chainalysis labeled them. He attributed a 94% decline in Iran-linked stablecoin volumes to Tether's actions. The post did not identify the addresses, the number of observations or the period measured for the volume decline.
The Senate report, titled Tethered to Terrorism, was published on September 28 by Democratic staff of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. It examined 846 wallets linked to Iran and its proxies. Investigators said 84% of those wallets used USDT exclusively or nearly exclusively.
The report described 39 wallets that Israel's bureau tied to a Hezbollah money launderer in June 2023. Tether froze five earlier and blocked the remaining 34 in March 2024, according to the report. Investigators said more than $34.6 million in USDT left the designated wallets after the seizure notice was published.
First $0.9998Latest $0.9992-0.1% over the period
Points are daily observations, not closing prices.
Why it matters
Blumenthal has asked federal investigators to examine Tether's sanctions and anti-money-laundering practices. He referred the findings to the Treasury and Justice departments, asking officials to consider potential sanctions and banking-law violations.
Tether says its freezes totaled nearly $550 million in Iran-linked USDT during 2026. That figure included more than $344 million across two addresses in April and more than $130 million across four wallets in July. The company did not itemize the roughly $76 million balance.
The dispute matters because USDT is a large stablecoin. CoinGecko put its market capitalization at about $183 billion. TRM Labs estimated Iranian crypto volume at about $11.4 billion in 2024 and $10 billion in 2025.
What is still unclear
- Tether has not published the measurement period, baseline, address set or asset scope behind the claimed 94% volume decline.
- Ardoino's figures remain company assertions, without an independently examined dataset establishing the averages or the claimed reduction.
Questions readers ask
What did Tether's CEO say about the Iran sanctions report?
Paolo Ardoino said Tether froze flagged addresses an average of four weeks before OFAC and Israeli designations since 2023. He also claimed 99% of reported addresses were frozen before Chainalysis labeled them.
What did the Senate report find about USDT and Iran-linked wallets?
Senate investigators examined 846 wallets and said 84% used USDT exclusively or nearly exclusively. They also said Tether blocked 34 of 39 flagged wallets only in March 2024.
How much Iran-linked USDT did Tether freeze in 2026?
Tether said it supported freezes of nearly $550 million in Iran-linked USDT during 2026. The total included more than $344 million in April and more than $130 million in July.
Has Tether published the data behind its claims?
No. The reports say Tether has not published the measurement period, baseline, address set or asset scope behind the volume decline, and the figures remain company assertions.
