Tether says its freezes drove a 94% drop in Iran-linked stablecoin volumes

Paolo Ardoino's claim lands weeks after a Senate report found most sanctioned Iran-linked wallets ran on USDT Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino says his company’s address freezes have cut Iran-linked stablecoin transaction volumes by 94% since 2023. The timing matters. A Senate report recently named Tether’s USDT as the stablecoin of choice for sanctioned Iran-linked wallets, and Ardoino’s response amounts to this: yes, they used our token, and we are the reason they are using it a lot less. Ardoino made the announcement on October 19, 2026. He framed the drop as the result of a proactive compliance strategy, not a reactive one. His central argument concerns timing.

BeCrypto News shows a short excerpt and links to the publisher. The full report belongs to Crypto Briefing.