Tether CEO disputes Senate Democrats' Iran report, says freezes cut Iran-linked stablecoin volumes 94%
Paolo Ardoino said Tether froze flagged addresses on average four weeks before official sanctions designations; a report by Senator Richard Blumenthal's staff said Tether had been slow to freeze Iran-linked wallets.
Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino has disputed a report by Democratic staff of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that accused the stablecoin issuer of providing “a significant financial lifeline within Iran’s shadow banking network,” CoinDesk reported.
In a post on X on Monday 19 October, Ardoino wrote that Senator Richard Blumenthal’s analysis of Tether’s sanctions record missed that, “since 2023, Tether froze on average 4 weeks prior to OFAC & NBCTF official sanction designation,” referring to the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing. He also said Tether froze reported addresses before blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis labelled them in 99% of cases, and that the company’s actions “led to Iran-linked stablecoin volumes declining by 94%.” Crypto.news noted that the post did not identify the data behind those figures.
The report, released on 28 September by Blumenthal’s office, found that 84% of 846 Iran-linked wallets it examined transacted exclusively or almost exclusively in Tether’s USDT, according to crypto.news. It said Tether did not consistently freeze flagged wallets before 2024. It cited 39 addresses that Israel’s counter-terror financing bureau identified in June 2023 as associated with a Hezbollah money launderer, saying Tether froze five of them earlier and the other 34 in March 2024. Blumenthal asked the Treasury Department and the Justice Department to investigate.
Tether said on 28 September that it had frozen nearly US$550 million in Iran-linked USDT in 2026, crypto.news reported.
Sources
- Post by Paolo Ardoino on X · X
- Tether: Senator's investigation misses positive work that's led to lower Iran volumes · CoinDesk
- Tether's Ardoino disputes Iran report with four-week freeze claim · crypto.news
- Crypto and Iran's Shadow Banking Network (preliminary report) · US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (minority staff)
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