Israel’s counter-terror finance bureau dropped something of a bombshell on Monday, publishing a list of 187 cryptocurrency addresses it says are tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The claim is that these wallets received around $1.5 billion in USDT, the widely-used stablecoin.
The National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing, or NBCTF, didn’t offer much in the way of immediate clarification when asked. They just put the list out there and said the funds ought to be seized.
Not All Addresses May Be Directly Linked
Blockchain analytics group Elliptic confirmed the massive flow of funds to those addresses. But they also added a pretty important caveat—they couldn’t say for sure that every single one of those wallets is directly controlled by Iran. Some might belong to crypto services, the kind that hold funds for lots of different users. That makes things a bit messy, honestly. It’s hard to untangle.
The reason seizure is even on the table is because it’s USDT. Tether, the company behind it, has a history of working with authorities to freeze funds linked to crime. It’s a centralized stablecoin, after all. They can actually do that.
A History of Crypto as a Workaround
This isn’t exactly coming out of nowhere. Using crypto to get around international sanctions has been part of Iran’s playbook for a while now. Just last week, U.S. authorities moved to recover over half a million in USDT from an Iranian national accused of supplying tech to the country’s military.
There’s also a widespread belief that the IRGC itself is one of Iran’s largest Bitcoin miners. It fits a pattern.
And the tensions between these two nations are no secret. They’ve been at odds for decades. Back in June, a series of attacks between them spooked global markets, crypto included. This latest move feels like another chapter in that long-running conflict.
The Complications of Enforcement
But seizing crypto is rarely straightforward. Remember back in June when a pro-Israel hacking group said it drained $90 million from the Iranian exchange Nobitex? They said it was linked to the Guard Corps. However, a compliance firm later pointed out that many of the exchange’s ordinary customers were probably caught in the crossfire. It shows how these actions can have unintended consequences.
So while Israel’s publication of these addresses is a bold accusation, the path from naming wallets to actually confiscating the funds is likely a complicated one. It involves tracing, proving ownership, and navigating a web of intermediaries. It’s never as simple as it seems.
