OFAC Adds Four Iran Central Bank Crypto Wallets as Tether Freezes $131 Million

Sanctions list expanded

The Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Treasury unit that administers U.S. sanctions, updated its Central Bank of Iran designation to include the four additional addresses on Tuesday. The move extends an existing financial blockade aimed at the Iranian central bank.

Chainalysis said the addresses are controlled by the Central Bank of Iran. The firm’s review of blockchain data found that the four wallets together received roughly $165 million in stablecoins. Of that amount, balances totaling $131 million were frozen by Tether, the issuer of the tokens involved.

How the freeze works

Stablecoin freezes do not remove funds from a wallet, but they can make them unusable. When an issuer freezes a balance at a sanctioned address, the holder can no longer send or spend those tokens.

Chainalysis said this feature creates a major vulnerability for illicit users of stablecoins. While such assets are widely accepted and highly liquid, which can make them attractive for cross-border transfers, issuers can still block access when directed by law enforcement.

The analytics firm said Tether has now frozen nearly $475 million in total from wallet addresses that OFAC has identified as belonging to the Central Bank of Iran. In practical terms, that means close to half a billion dollars in value has been made inaccessible through issuer action tied to U.S. sanctions designations.

Patterns in Iran-linked crypto flows

Chainalysis said its research indicates a preference by the Iranian regime for stablecoins rather than more volatile digital assets. The firm argued that liquidity and broad global acceptance help explain that pattern.

Using its Reactor tracing tool, Chainalysis said the four newly designated addresses received funds upstream from an institutional liquidity provider and an Asia-based payment processor. The source article did not identify either entity by name or specify whether they were aware of the downstream destination of the funds.

Reason for the action

The designation is part of a broader U.S. effort to restrict the Central Bank of Iran’s financial activity. Chainalysis said the central bank has used cryptocurrency to evade sanctions, fund the regime and move assets to regional partners, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, which the United States designates as a terrorist organization.

The source article frames those activities as the rationale behind OFAC’s latest action. It does not provide additional court findings or public enforcement documents beyond the sanctions update itself.

The latest listings underscore how sanctions enforcement in crypto increasingly depends not only on identifying blockchain addresses, but also on the power of token issuers to immobilize funds once those addresses are formally designated.