Tether CEO Says Addresses Frozen Weeks Ahead of Sanctions, Driving 94% Drop in Iran-Linked Volumes

A major stablecoin issuer says it is outpacing official sanctions and analytics labels with proactive freezes on suspicious addresses. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino says that since 2023 the firm froze addresses an average of four weeks before the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing formally flagged them as being linked to Iran. He also says that the firm froze the reported addresses before Chainalysis labeled them Iran-linked 99% of the time. According to Ardoino, these steps led to a 94% decline in Iran-linked stablecoin volumes. The firm, which issues the dollar-pegged stablecoin USDT, credits its law enforcement partnerships for enabling fast responses to new threats. Ardoino’s comments come in response to recent criticism by Sen.

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