Tether CEO Says Freezes Cut Iran-Linked Stablecoin Volume by 94%

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the company’s wallet freezes cut Iran-linked stablecoin transaction volume by 94%, challenging Senate minority staff allegations that Tether failed to freeze illicit wallets.

Since 2023, Ardoino said, Tether has frozen addresses an average of four weeks before formal designations by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF). He also said Tether completed freezes before Chainalysis labeled the reported addresses in 99% of cases.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal and the minority staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a Sept. 28 review covering 846 wallets associated with Iran or its regional proxies that had been sanctioned or targeted for seizure. Of those wallets, 84% transacted exclusively or nearly exclusively in Tether USDt (USDT), the company’s dollar-pegged stablecoin.

The minority staff alleged that Tether had failed to freeze illicit wallets. Blumenthal asked the Treasury and Justice departments to investigate Tether.