TRM Laboratories On April 24, 2026 he noted: U.S. Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) It has taken a significant step in the enforcement of digital assets by blacklisting two cryptocurrency wallets directly linked to the Central Bank of Iran. This movement, in which connections are also emphasized, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force And HezbollahTriggered instant freeze of approximately $344.2 million of Tether’s USDT stablecoin.
Bond He worked closely with OFAC and US law enforcement to lock up the funds, making it the largest on-chain seizure of Iranian state-linked crypto assets to date.
approved Addresses had quietly amassed nearly $370 million through nearly 1,000 separate deposits since March 2021.
Accordingly blockchain intelligence One of the wallets examined by TRM Labs did not record any outgoing transfers, while the second sent less than $16 million compared to more than $228 million received.
Total outflows at both addresses were only around $25 million; this was less than 7 percent of total entries.
TRM Laboratories He noted that the limited activity that occurred remained almost entirely internal: a single transfer of $8.6 million occurred between two wallets in January 2022, and the largest external outflows (about $11 million in four transactions in early 2023) went to another address within the same network rather than to any known exchange.
TRM Labs stated that no funds were flowing to the deposit addresses of major banks trade platforms. Accumulation was largely halted towards the end of 2023, after which both wallets remained dormant until this week’s enforcement decision.
This pattern strongly suggests that addresses serve as long-term backup vaults rather than tools for day-to-day operations.
This appointment is made for the first time OFAC It directly targeted wallets belonging to the Iranian central bank on the blockchain.
It underscores a broader shift in how Tehran is turning to crypto to bypass traditional banking restrictions.
TRM Labs has been tracking this activity for years and notes one consistent corporate playbook: big USDT deposits come in, are routed via bridges to Ethereum or Binance Smart Chain multi-signature custody setups, converted through decentralized finance protocols, and eventually routed to centralized exchanges.
Newly approved wallets are at the very beginning of this process. This latest action fits into a longer series of U.S. efforts to disrupt Iran’s crypto-enabled sanctions evasion network.
In January 2026, OFAC blacklisted two individuals EnglandRegistered exchanges Zedcex and Zedxion after TRM detected nearly $1 billion in stablecoin flows tied to IRGC-controlled accounts and designated terrorist financiers.
Iran’s domestic crypto economy Despite these pressures, he maintained his power; Trade volumes reached $11.4 billion in 2024 and $10 billion in 2025.
Platforms such as Nobitex continue to serve as key gateways between the country’s local market and regime-linked actors.
Financial institutions and compatibility For teams, sanctions carry direct practical weight.
TRM Laboratories He noted that any entity that may have touched these flows, either directly or through intermediaries, must now conduct urgent reviews of counterparty risk.
This move also sends a clear signal. Treasury no longer limits its reach to brokers and exchanges; now it targets the sovereign reserve layer itself. TRM Laboratories Its latest update concluded that as cryptocurrency becomes more deeply incorporated into government financial strategies around the world, regulators appear poised to treat once traditionally segregated on-chain reserve assets with the same scrutiny. bank accounts.
