Israel Calls for Seizure of $1.5 Million in Tether Allegedly Tied to Iran

Israel on Monday published a list of crypto addresses, alleging Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps used them to receive $1.5 billion in USDT.

Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing said in its announcement that the crypto across the 187 addresses should be seized. 

The NBCTF did not immediately respond to Decrypt‘s questions but blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said the addresses received the huge amount of crypto in the form of Tether’s USDT. 

Elliptic added that it wasn’t able to say for certain if all the addresses were directly linked to Iran “since some of them may be controlled by cryptocurrency services and could be part of wallet infrastructure used to facilitate transactions for many customers.”

It added that the assets could be seized because they are in the form of USDT. Tether’s USDT stablecoin is the fourth biggest digital asset by market cap and the most-traded virtual coin, with a 24-hour trading volume of over $101 billion. 

Tether, the company that issues the digital coin, has worked with law enforcement in the past to freeze USDT linked to criminal activity.  

Pro-Israel hacking group Gonjeshke Darande in June drained $90 million in crypto from Iranian exchange Nobitex, alleging it had links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. 

But compliance firm Crystal Intelligence told Decrypt that many Nobitex customers were likely hit by the hack. 

Iran has long used cryptocurrency to circumvent sanctions. Last week, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts filed a civil forfeiture action to recover $584,741 in USDT stablecoins from an Iranian national who provided technology to the Iranian military.

Iran’s IRGC is believed to be one of the country’s biggest Bitcoin miners.

Israel and Iran have been arch regional enemies for decades. The two attacked each other in a 12-day war in June, roiling crypto and other markets.