Iran had already started collecting cryptocurrency payments from ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz when US authorities moved to cut off the money.
On Friday, the Treasury Department announced that it had frozen more than $340 million in cryptocurrencies linked to Iranian military and political groups, the same amount that stablecoin issuer Tether had quietly blocked just 24 hours earlier.
Bitcoin tolls at a global choke point
Reports say Iran had been charging ships in Bitcoin for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuzone of the world’s most critical shipping routes for oil and other cargo. Reports reveal that Iran had already earned revenue from those crypto tolls.
The move came amid an ongoing standoff in the strait, where Iranian forces reportedly attacked three ships and U.S. naval forces established a blockade.
US President Donald Trump said this week that the US and Iran had reached a ceasefire agreement. But tensions in the water tell a different story. Attacks on commercial ships and the US blockade suggest that the situation is far from resolved.
Under the economic fury, @USTreasury will continue to systematically degrade Tehran’s ability to generate, move and repatriate funds.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is sanctioning multiple wallets linked to Iran, resulting in the freezing of $344 million in…
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) April 24, 2026
The Treasury acts against Iranian wallets
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent posted on X on Friday that the Office of Foreign Assets Control had sanctioned two cryptocurrency addresses on the Tron blockchain. The wallets, officials said, were connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah. Together, they had 344 million dollars.
“We will track the money that Tehran is desperately trying to move out of the country and target all financial lifelines linked to the regime.” Besent said. The freeze, he added, was part of a broader effort to “systematically degrade Tehran’s ability to generate, move and repatriate funds.”
The announcement came a day after Tether revealed that it had frozen more than $344 million of its USDt stablecoin at the request of US authorities. At the time, the company cited “activities linked to illegal conduct” but did not name Iran. Friday’s Treasury notice made the connection explicit.
The United States and Israel launched joint airstrikes against Iran in late February. Since then, US financial pressure on Tehran has intensified in both traditional and crypto markets.
Cryptocurrency limits as an alternative solution to sanctions
Iran’s attempt to use cryptocurrencies as a financial solution ran into a tough wall. Tron addresses marked by OFAC They now appear on the agency’s list of Specially Designated Nationals, effectively making them off-limits to any U.S. person or entity.
The episode shows how Iran’s crypto lifeline, including the $344 million frozen in those two Tron wallets, may still be disrupted through centralized stablecoin issuers willing to act on law enforcement requests. Tether’s compliance with the US request occurred even before the public sanctions notice was issued.
Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView
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