Iran Faces $1B Crypto Seizure, Treasury Secretary Warns

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said American authorities will imminently seize $1 billion in crypto from Iran.

The economic sanctions on the Middle Eastern country were achieving their intended effect, Bessent said Thursday at Newsmax's NPolicy Summit in Washington, D.C.

Iran has relied on bitcoin, along with other cryptocurrencies, to get around U.S. sanctions. In April, the U.S. started targeting crypto wallets linked to the Iranian regime, Bessent said then.

On Iranian sanctions, Bessent said Thursday: “What we have done has never been seen before.”

“We’re probably going to seize $1 billion of crypto this week,” Bessent went on. “We know where it is. We are isolating them. We did have a maximum pressure campaign, now we have an absolute isolation campaign and it’s working.”

Exactly which cryptocurrencies would be seized, and by what method, was not disclosed by Bessent.

Unless it is held on a centralized exchange, Iran's bitcoin would be very difficult for the U.S. to freeze, if not impossible.

Because bitcoin is resistant to censorship, it cannot be frozen. Many other digital currencies, including Tether's USDT, can be frozen, however. Bessent previously said federal authorities had seized Iranian crypto in the form of that widely used stablecoin.

Iran launched a bitcoin-backed insurance offering for its shipping companies earlier this year.

Iran was settling cross-border payments with bitcoin through Iranian crypto exchanges after the central bank advised citizens to take any action needed to support the economy, the Financial Times reported last month.

President Donald Trump brought back his “maximum pressure” campaign within weeks of again taking office. Under a national security memorandum signed in February 2025, the Treasury was directed to keep up a sustained fight against Iran's shadow banking, money laundering and sanctions-evasion networks.