USDT issuer Tether has frozen about $700 million in the stablecoin related to accounts funding Iran terrorist activities.
According to a thread on X on 25 June, a user explained that the funds were held in 112 addresses on Tron and Ethereum, with most of the funds being on Tron.
Curbing terrorist activities
Apparently, the freezing of the funds was aimed at stopping terrorists trying to bypass sanctions. According to the thread, the addresses have been receiving inflow, supported by local exchanges which are complicit.
Nobitex, one of the local Iranian crypto exchanges, was recently hacked for $90 million by hackers who said they were pro Israel.
After the hack, the Iranian government shut down local exchanges to prevent further exploits and since then, Nobitex has been educating its users on how to continue sending funds without being detected.
As a background, Iran has been at war with Israel over alleged possession of nuclear weapons which Israel says the regime cannot be allowed to own.
Later, the United States joined in and to bomb Iran’s nuclear facility, rendering it harmless according to the U.S. government.
The funds in USDT may be coming from Iran sympathizers who are looking to support the cause of the regime and keep the battle going, but this may not be very successful going forward with Tether’s intervention.
Crypto and terrorism financing
Since the advent of crypto in 2009, terrorism financing has been a major concern, because transactions with digital assets are untraceable.
While the argument is mostly from those who dislike crypto for some other reasons, there is some truth in it as is seen in the case of Iran.
However thanks to the evolving technology, Tether is able to identify and intercept funds being sent for this purpose and in the future, it could become more seamless to hindre the use of crypto for funding terrorist regimes.
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