Tether CEO Defends Freeze Record as Senate Details 34-Wallet Delay

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino defended the stablecoin issuer’s broader record of freezing flagged wallets Oct. 19, as Senate investigators described a months-long delay involving 34 addresses linked to Hezbollah financing.

Ardoino claimed Tether froze flagged addresses an average of four weeks before U.S. sanctions designations and Israeli seizure orders since 2023. He also claimed the company acted before blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis labeled addresses 99% of the time. Those figures describe Tether’s broader freeze record, not the timing for the 34 addresses cited by Senate staff.

Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing published a seizure notice in June 2023 concerning a digital-asset network authorities linked to Hezbollah and Iran’s Quds Force. Senate Democratic staff said Tether had frozen five of 39 addresses associated with Tawfiq Muhammad Sa’id al-Law but left the other 34 active until March 2024. The investigators calculated that more than $34.6 million in Tether USDt (USDT) moved out of the wallets after the notice became public. The Treasury designated al-Law for sanctions on March 26, 2024.

USDT is a dollar-pegged stablecoin, and Tether can freeze specific wallet addresses. The Senate staff’s account focuses on the period after the Israeli notice became public; Ardoino’s averages use formal designations and analytics labels as benchmarks. The two measures cover different events and do not establish when Tether blocked those 34 addresses.

The review covered 846 wallets tied to Iran and regional allies that had been sanctioned or named in seizure actions. It found that 84% had transacted exclusively or nearly exclusively in USDT. In September, Tether said it had helped freeze about $550 million in Iran-linked USDT in 2026; that figure does not establish when it blocked the 34 addresses.

On Sept. 28, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the subcommittee’s ranking Democrat, urged the Treasury and Justice departments to examine Tether’s sanctions and anti-money-laundering controls and consider enforcement if they find violations. Blumenthal later sought Tether reserve and compliance records from Cantor Fitzgerald.