Bitcoin Magazine
U.S. Treasury Freezes $130 Million Iran-Linked IRGC Crypto Wallet, Tracks Ayatollah’s Assets
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Fox News on Tuesday that the United States froze a crypto wallet linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps worth $130 million, part of a campaign to track the assets of Iran’s supreme leader around the world.
“We are tracking these accounts all over the world,” Bessent said, in remarks that framed the Treasury work as one prong of an “economic fury” push against Tehran alongside a blockade. “We froze a crypto wallet linked to the IRGC the other day.”
He said investigators had “found the money man for the Ayatollah” and were tracing the holdings of Ali Khamenei, including properties he valued at more than $100 million. Bessent said the Treasury hopes to publish the addresses of those properties. He cast the seizures as a transfer of value to the American people and a squeeze on the regime.
Bessent also described a collapse in Iran’s economy. He said the rial sits at an all-time low against the dollar and called it in “freefall,” with an inflation rate he put “upwards of 180%.” His account tracks the rial slide that has pushed some Iranians toward bitcoin.
The comments extend a Treasury campaign that has run through the war between Iran, Israel, and the United States. The department has sanctioned Iran’s largest crypto exchange and said the U.S. has seized $1 billion of Iran’s crypto. Blockchain analysts have tied billions in on-chain flows to IRGC-linked wallets, with such wallets receiving more than $3 billion in 2025, a rise from over $2 billion the year before.
In a separate move, the stablecoin issuer Tether froze $344 million in USDT across two blockchain addresses tied to the IRGC, one of the largest single actions in the sequence.
Bitcoin’s design draws both sides of the fight. It settles without a correspondent bank or a reserve-currency issuer, a trait that lets Iran monetize oil access outside the dollar system and lets Treasury trace and freeze value on a public ledger.
The conflict has reshaped how crypto figures into the region. Since U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began, bitcoin use inside the country has surged as residents moved value out of the banking system.
Tehran, for its part, reportedly moved to accept bitcoin from tankers seeking passage through the Strait of Hormuz, a $1-per-barrel toll that turns its grip on the chokepoint into settlement revenue. The strait carries a fifth of the world’s oil.
The war has repriced bitcoin as well.
Treasury has not published documentation of the $130 million wallet freeze or the property addresses Bessent referenced. The inflation and currency figures came from his remarks rather than from Iranian data.
This post U.S. Treasury Freezes $130 Million Iran-Linked IRGC Crypto Wallet, Tracks Ayatollah’s Assets first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.
US sanctions have again put stablecoins at the centre of the enforcement debate after addresses linked to Iran were added to the Treasury Department’s sanctions list and $131 million in USDT was reportedly frozen on TRON.
The case is important because it cuts straight through one of crypto’s most uncomfortable tensions. Public blockchains are open and permissionless, but major dollar-backed stablecoins are issued by companies that can freeze tokens when required by law enforcement or sanctions authorities.
That means stablecoins can behave like crypto in one sense and regulated financial instruments in another.
For TRON, the story is especially relevant because the network has become one of the largest venues for USDT transfers globally. Low fees and wide exchange support have made it a major stablecoin rail. But that same usage also means enforcement actions on TRON addresses attract attention quickly.
Reference: US Treasury
Stablecoins are often used like crypto cash, but they are not the same as Bitcoin.
A token such as USDT may move on public blockchains, but it is still issued by a centralized company. That issuer manages reserves, redemption, compliance, and in many cases the ability to freeze or blacklist addresses.
That freeze function is controversial, but it is also one reason stablecoins have survived inside the regulated financial system.
Governments expect issuers to respond to sanctions, terrorism-financing concerns, stolen funds, and law-enforcement requests. Stablecoin companies that ignore those expectations risk losing banking relationships, licenses, and access to the broader financial system.
This creates a trade-off.
Users get dollar liquidity that moves quickly across blockchains. They also accept that the token is not fully censorship-resistant. If an issuer freezes an address, the blockchain may keep running, but the frozen tokens cannot move.
The Iranian wallet case makes that trade-off visible.
TRON has become a major stablecoin network because it is cheap, fast, and widely supported by exchanges.
For many users, especially outside the US, TRON-based USDT is a practical payment and transfer tool. It is often used for exchange deposits, peer-to-peer transfers, remittances, and dollar access in regions where banking rails are limited or expensive.
That utility is real.
But the same features that make TRON useful also make it a major surface area for compliance scrutiny. If large amounts of sanctioned funds, exchange flows, or high-risk wallets move through TRON, regulators will pay attention.
The Treasury action shows that public-chain activity can still become part of sanctions enforcement. Wallet addresses are visible, funds can be traced, and issuers can be pressured or required to act.
That does not make TRON unique. Similar issues exist across Ethereum, BNB Chain, Solana, and other networks. But TRON’s dominance in USDT transfers makes it one of the most important networks in this particular debate.
The key message from sanctions actions is that stablecoin rails are not outside government reach.
Even when funds sit on decentralized ledgers, the issuer layer can still become an enforcement chokepoint. That is especially true for dollar-backed stablecoins because issuers need banking access and regulatory credibility.
This is why stablecoins sit in a strange middle ground.
They are one of crypto’s most useful products, but they also bring crypto closer to traditional financial controls. They can make payments faster and more global, but they can also carry blacklist and freeze capabilities that are closer to bank compliance than Bitcoin-style neutrality.
For regulators, that is a feature. For some crypto users, it is a flaw.
The bigger question is whether this balance becomes more accepted as stablecoins grow. If stablecoins are to become mainstream payment and settlement tools, governments will expect compliance. If users want uncensorable assets, centralized stablecoins may not be the right instrument.
That distinction matters.
The TRON freeze is not just a story about one sanctions action. It is a reminder of how dollar-backed stablecoins actually work. They can move on-chain, but they remain tied to off-chain issuers and legal obligations.
As stablecoin adoption grows, that enforcement layer will become even more important.
This article is based on the US Treasury Department’s OFAC action and Tether transparency materials.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
This report is based on information released by US Treasury. at US Treasury
Bitcoin Magazine
Bitcoin Sentiment Is Turning Bullish — But It’s Too Early to Celebrate: Report
The Bitcoin bottom may be in — but don’t get your hopes up: It might struggle to go up anytime soon, according to one investment firm.
A Friday report from European asset management firm CoinShares said that investors last week threw fresh cash at Bitcoin — and other crypto — exchange-traded products, indicating a change in sentiment.
But other factors may hold digital asset markets from going higher, James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, wrote.
“We have said for some time that Bitcoin has probably reached, or is close to, its floor,” the report read. “But we see no significant upside potential from here.”
The report added that current macroeconomic headwinds, such as the US bombing Iran and rising oil prices, could see inflation go up again.
Bitcoin’s price was up earlier this week, hitting a seven-day high of $65,501 on news that inflation in the US was softer than expected. It has since erased those gains and was recently trading for $64,010.
The price of Bitcoin has typically done well on news that inflation is coming down because investors expect interest rates to come down. But Butterfill said that “a rate cut does not look probable at this stage.”
CoinShares’ data showed that investors pulled a total of $8 billion out of funds giving crypto exposure — “the worst run on record.”
Last week, though, things reversed when $287 million hit crypto funds, CoinShares said, with the data so far showing that this week looks likely to be another positive streak.
The price of Bitcoin has typically done well when US investors — previously excluded from crypto investing — have bought shares in exchange-traded funds approved in 2024.
The products — handled by the likes of BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale — allow more traditional investors or Wall Street institutions to buy positions in Bitcoin via shares that trade on stock exchanges.
Since BTC’s October all-time high of $126,080, crypto markets have faced a battering as those investors have fast cashed out of the funds. Bitcoin has struggled to make gains, especially after the US and Israel started bombing Iran, leading to a surge in the price of oil.
The leading cryptocurrency is now nearly 50% below its record.
“The dominant picture is that the current setup is prompting interest in adding positions, but caution prevails while sentiment remains broadly negative,” CoinShares added.
This post Bitcoin Sentiment Is Turning Bullish — But It’s Too Early to Celebrate: Report first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.
Bitcoin Magazine
Bitcoin Price Falls Under $63,000 on U.S.-Iran Strikes and Trump’s China Charge, but Onchain Data Points to Buyers
Bitcoin price fell below $63,000 on Friday, as a fresh wave of U.S. airstrikes on Iran and a new political dispute between Washington and Beijing pushed investors out of risk assets.
Bitcoin price traded near $62,800, an extension of Thursday’s 1.4% slide from $65,000, according to Bitcoin Magazine Pro data. The token slipped under its 50-day simple moving average, a gauge of near-term momentum that many traders watch.
The bitcoin price retreat tracked a broad decline across global markets. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 4% and entered a correction, a fall of more than 10% from its June 25 peak, as memory-chip maker Kioxia lost 16.1%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 2%, while the Shanghai Composite fell 3.1% to an 11-month low.
Futures tied to the Nasdaq pointed to a decline of 1.6%, an echo of Thursday’s drop on Wall Street, where chip shares from Nvidia, Micron, Broadcom and Qualcomm came under pressure on fears that the AI rally has run past its earnings.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, citing the Hormozgan province governorate, said U.S. airstrikes hit five bridges in the southern province.
A separate missile strike damaged the maritime control tower at Iran’s Chabahar port. WTI crude climbed near $79 a barrel, a rise close to 15% across five sessions, a move that revived concern about inflation and the path of interest rates.
A second front of uncertainty opened in Washington. President Donald Trump declassified intelligence reports that allege Chinese interference in U.S. elections and claimed Beijing obtained 220 million voter records, a threat he cast as a danger to democracy. China’s embassy denied the allegations.
The dispute itself carries little market weight, though traders fear it could strain ties before Trump’s September meeting with Xi Jinping. The Australian dollar, a proxy for China-linked trade, weakened against the greenback.
Against that backdrop, some analysts argue the sell-off masks a market whose core drivers have changed little. Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at Nansen, said the bitcoin price tape reflects macro data more than a geopolitical hedge.
“The inflation and liquidity channel is doing more work here than the geopolitical hedge narrative,” Sondergaard said. He pointed to the June CPI report released July 14, which showed headline inflation of 3.5% against a 3.8% forecast and a core reading of 2.6% against 2.9%. The dollar index sank to near 100.77, a multi-month low, and the 10-year Treasury yield eased to 4.57%.
The softer print reset Fed expectations. Odds of a rate hike at the July 28-29 meeting fell from above 40% to the low teens, according to CME FedWatch data.
“The FOMC meeting on July 28 to 29 is the actual binary,” Sondergaard said. “If the CPI data holds and the Fed signals a credible pivot path, the conditions for sustained ETF inflows are back in place.”
Onchain flows support his read. Spot bitcoin ETFs drew $510 million across three sessions this month, an end to a $2.73 billion outflow streak, with BlackRock’s IBIT in the lead. Nansen’s data shows large wallets held their ground through the strike.
“Net outflows hit -18.3 BTC in the strike hour, then reverted to a post-shock average of +0.67 BTC per hour, meaning buyers returned within the same session,” Sondergaard said.
Sondergaard framed positioning as constructive rather than fragile. Funding rates sat near zero, a sign that leveraged longs are not crowded, and smart-money long/short ratios ran at 1.58 with no rotation into stablecoins. Retail traders held a ratio of 1.79, a step ahead of the pros but in the same direction. Seven-day inflows concentrated in liquid staking, DeFi lending and decentralized exchanges, a risk-on allocation.
Sondergaard said the sequence rhymes with past shocks. “Prior Middle East escalations produced the same pattern: short-duration flush, accumulation resumes,” he said.
“MVRV sits at 1.205 with realized price at roughly $53,000 and the long-term holder cost basis around $49,900, which defines the structural floor,” Sondergaard said. “That is not the profile of a market running on geopolitical sentiment.”
At the time of writing, the bitcoin price is $62, 836.
This post Bitcoin Price Falls Under $63,000 on U.S.-Iran Strikes and Trump’s China Charge, but Onchain Data Points to Buyers first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.
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