Scott Bessent, the US Treasury Secretary, stated that the nation will “probably gonna seize a billion dollars of crypto this week” as a component of its enforcement actions against Iran.
During his appearance at the Newsmax Policy Summit on Thursday, Bessent mentioned that this upcoming digital currency confiscation forms part of ongoing American sanctions targeting Iran following the outbreak of their most current military engagement in February. He did not specify if the targeted digital assets involved particular platforms or stemmed from actions taken by stablecoin creators.
“We know where it is, and we are isolating them,” Bessent stated to Greta Van Susteren of Newsmax. He further explained that this action forms a key element of the broader plan to financially sever Iran.
Back in August, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) revealed that it was going after cryptocurrency platforms supporting transactions for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. At that time, Bessent noted that the US intended to “increase the economic pressure” on Iran by targeting financial pipelines supporting the nation’s government “in dollars, rials, or crypto.”
Back in April, the US Treasury Secretary shared a comparable statement during an interview, noting that officials had already confiscated $500 million in Iranian-associated cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, stablecoin company Tether stated in September that it assisted in freezing $550 million worth of USDt (USDT) throughout 2026 to support US sanctions against Iran, which included a $344 million freeze during April alone.
Related: UK sanctions three crypto exchanges tied to Russian illicit funds
Originally published at https://cointelegraph.com/news/scott-bessent-us-seize-crypto-iran-sanctions?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound.
