US Sanctions on ICC Threaten Dollar Access, Crypto Not the Answer

According to US officials and documents cited by the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, the Trump administration has prepared sanctions against the ICC that would block the majority of transactions with the court.

The sanctions would take effect after a wind-down period of six to seven months. For the first time, Washington would go after the court itself instead of its personnel.

Why ICC Sanctions Already Reach the Court’s Bank Accounts

The effort is based on Executive Order 14203, issued in February 2025, that proclaimed a national emergency because of the ICC's probes into US and Israeli citizens.

The order came after arrest warrants were issued in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant on allegations of war crimes in Gaza. Israel does not recognize the court's authority.

Since then, the US has placed individual judges and prosecutors at the Hague-based court under sanctions, including President Tomoko Akane in August.

The Associated Press reported that those designations led to bank accounts being shut down and credit cards being canceled.

“It’s the uncertainty. They are small annoyances, but they accumulate,” said Judge Kimberly Prost.

US correspondent banks process dollar settlements. Other banks steer clear of sanctioned entities to safeguard their own dollar privileges. Consequently, an institutional designation would affect salaries, supplier payments, and witness expenses regardless of the currency used.

🚨 JUST IN: The Trump administration is preparing to impose “SWEEPING SANCTIONS” against the International Criminal Court (ICC), per WSJ

This comes after ICC issued an arrest warrant for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu

The sanctions would likely prevent ICC from transacting in US…

— Nick Sortor

What US Law Now Requires of Stablecoin Issuers

Dollar-pegged stablecoins are tokens whose value is tied 1:1 to the dollar. In principle, that has made them the natural workaround.

But the law shuts that loophole. An April Treasury regulation under the GENIUS Act mandates that authorized stablecoin issuers must have the technical capability to block, freeze, and reject transactions, as well as to check against the OFAC sanctions list.

Issuers had already been doing this. In April, Tether froze $344 million of USDT on the Tron network in coordination with OFAC, its biggest single freeze.

“USD₮ is not a safe haven for illicit activity. When credible links to sanctioned entities or criminal networks are identified, we act immediately and decisively,” said Paolo Ardoino, chief executive of Tether.

That same freeze mechanism has already been used to implement US policy against Iranian wallets. In February, Washington also directly sanctioned two UK exchanges.

Bitcoin lacks an issuer and a freeze function. So turning it into euros or dollars still requires exchanges and banks, where regulated entities check the same OFAC list.

Where the Court is Actually Looking for Cover

The court's own backup plan is software, not crypto tokens. According to reports, it is replacing Microsoft with openDesk, an open-source office suite developed for public institutions in Germany.

Gmail, Amazon access closed of International Criminal Court judges as US decided that they did not like them.https://t.co/BHk0pljiKh
Court announced it would transfer its office software from Microsoft to an open-source platform developed by a company owned by German government.

— Harsh Gupta Madhusudan

OFAC has not yet designated the court itself. IMF data shows the dollar accounted for 57.13% of allocated central bank reserves in Q1 2026, and the assets meant to exist outside the dollar system are now subject to the same sanctions list.

So can cryptocurrency step in? No, and these three points explain why:

• Authorized stablecoin issuers lack any freedom of choice.

The Treasury regulation requires them to have freeze, block, and reject functions and to vet against the OFAC list.

• Tokens without an issuer still require a way out.

Bitcoin cannot be frozen on the blockchain, but regulated exchanges and banks check the same list, and Washington has imposed sanctions on whole platforms.

• The court has not adopted cryptocurrency.

According to reports, its reaction to being cut off has been to use open-source software.