US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States has seized nearly $500 million in Iranian crypto assets under Operation Economic Fury, marking one of the largest digital asset enforcement actions to date.
The total includes roughly $350 million in crypto seizures plus an additional $100 million, alongside a $344 million Tether freeze across two Tron addresses linked to Iranian entities.
“We were able to grab about 350 million crypto assets, and then on top of another 100 that we had recently gotten, so we’re almost at half a billion there, and we are freezing bank accounts everywhere,”
Bessent said on Fox Business.
The freeze was executed following direction from the Office of Foreign Assets Control, with blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis identifying wallet activity consistent with IRGC-linked and Central Bank of Iran intermediary addresses.
Operation Economic Fury, ordered by Donald Trump in March 2025, has targeted Iran’s financial system across crypto wallets, bank accounts, foreign real estate, and retirement funds as part of a broader sanctions campaign.
US officials say the measures have contributed to a 60–70% sharp decline in the Iranian rial against the dollar and the collapse of a major Iranian bank, intensifying economic pressure on Tehran.
The campaign has also expanded to secondary sanctions on global buyers of Iranian oil, with authorities warning the regime may soon struggle to fund military operations and regional proxy networks.