US prosecutors have initiated a civil forfeiture case to seize $61.2 million in Tether (USDT) linked to black-market Iranian oil sales, targeting assets held across ten separate TRON blockchain addresses. The funds are alleged to originate from transactions connected to the Iranian government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which Washington classifies as a terrorist entity.
Tracing alleged sanctions evasion through crypto
The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York filed the case on September 14, naming ten TRON addresses whose balances had already been frozen. According to the complaint, two Hong Kong-based companies, Blessed Trust Limited and Hexa Whale Trading Limited, orchestrated the transfers. Authorities stated these companies used accounts on the cryptocurrency exchange Binance to convert proceeds from oil sales into digital assets.
Blessed Trust described itself as a provider of wealth management and digital asset custody, while Hexa Whale claimed to act as a commodities broker. Investigators allege that a larger network of wallets—referred to as “Entity A”—moved over $1.5 billion in proceeds from suspected Iranian oil and petroleum sales.
Funds reportedly flowed from these wallets to various recipients, including the Iranian crypto exchange Nobitex, as well as wallets and transmitters associated with the IRGC or acting as its fronts. US authorities also tied one of the addresses to Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars, a company sanctioned by the Treasury Department in 2023 for facilitating Iranian oil sales abroad.
Mini dictionary: TRON – A blockchain-based decentralized platform designed for scalable smart contracts and low-cost, high-speed digital asset transfers, often used for issuing tokens such as USDT.
Asset freezing and legal procedures
Tether, the USDT issuer, froze all ten TRON wallets before the government complaint was filed. US authorities stated two addresses were frozen in July 2025, while the other eight were blocked in June 2025. Balances in these wallets varied from 1 million USDT to over 12.75 million USDT.
A seizure warrant dated September 14 authorizes the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to assume custody of the cryptocurrency. Tether will reportedly destroy the current tokens and reissue an equivalent amount of USDT, which will then be placed in an FBI-controlled hardware wallet based in New York. The government must complete a court forfeiture process before it can legally claim ownership of the funds.
US authorities flagged more than $1.5 billion in Iranian oil and petroleum revenues passing through a network of wallets allegedly managed by the sanctioned companies.
The complaint also details transfer activity involving the two Hong Kong companies. Investigators allege that in March and April 2024, nearly $37.15 million was sent to Hexa Whale, and between November 2024 and March 2025, around $443.49 million was sent to Blessed Trust. Several of these transactions reportedly used US-based correspondent bank accounts, despite the lack of proper licenses from the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
| Address | Status | Frozen date | Balance (USDT) |
|---|---|---|---|
| TRON address 1 | Frozen | July 2025 | 12.75 million |
| TRON address 2 | Frozen | July 2025 | 2.15 million |
| TRON addresses 3–10 | Frozen | June 2025 | 1–8 million each |
Binance’s response and wider regulatory crackdown
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, responded earlier this year to media reports about the alleged transfers, calling the claims unfounded. The company indicated that it had removed both Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale following internal reviews, with Hexa Whale offboarded in August 2025 and Blessed Trust in January 2026. Binance also stated that, to its knowledge, neither entity operated accounts that transacted directly with Iran-based organizations.
Binance affirmed its commitment to compliance and clarified that the exchange took action to remove the implicated companies as soon as concerns were raised.
The present civil forfeiture case focuses solely on the targeted USDT assets and does not accuse Binance of criminal wrongdoing. The case is part of a broader US initiative in 2026 aimed at restricting Iran’s use of digital assets to evade sanctions. In June, OFAC sanctioned Nobitex and three additional Iranian exchanges for connections to the IRGC. In August, the Treasury began Operation Economic Outcast, which seeks to disrupt Iranian oil, shipping, and cryptocurrency networks used to circumvent US sanctions. On September 14, the Treasury also sanctioned Russia’s VTB Bank in an unrelated action targeting alleged Iranian sanctions evasion.
