Tether CEO says Iran-related stablecoin transaction volume declined 94%
BIBIBI
AT A GLANCE
Tether CEO says that after it froze the relevant addresses, Iran-related stablecoin transaction volume declined 94%, but the relevant data cannot yet be independently verified.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino posted on X that U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal's Tether analysis of the sanctions report ignores one point: since 2023,Tether has, on average, been ahead of the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Israel's National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) in formally designating sanctions by 4 weeks in freezing the relevant addresses, and 99%had completed the freezes before Chainalysis flagged the relevant addresses. He stated that Tether's actions caused Iran-related stablecoin transaction volume to decline 94%. Previously, Blumenthal September 28 released a U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report, stating that among 846 sanctioned wallets involving Iran and its proxies, 84%almost exclusively used USDT for transactions, and wrote to the U.S. Treasury Department and Department of Justice requesting an investigation into Tether.
Key points
01
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino responded in a post on X to U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal's Tether analysis of the sanctions report.
02
Ardoino said that since 2023,Tether has, on average, been ahead of OFAC and NBCTF in formally designating sanctions by 4 weeks in freezing the relevant addresses.
03
Ardoino said that, in the case of 99%,Tether had completed the freezes before Chainalysis flagged the relevant addresses.
04
Ardoino stated that Tether's actions caused Iran-related stablecoin transaction volume to decline 94%。
05
The report alleges that Blumenthal September 28 released a U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report.
06
The report states that among 846 sanctioned wallets involving Iran and its proxies, 84%almost exclusively used USDT for transactions.
07
Blumenthal wrote to the U.S. Treasury Department and Department of Justice, requesting an investigation into Tether.
AI-assisted interpretation
The following is analysis, separate from reported facts. Verify important claims independently.
This news item involves statements from two sides: Paolo Ardoino emphasized that Tether would freeze relevant addresses in advance and said that the related transaction volume declined significantly; Richard Blumenthal cited wallet data in the Senate report and requested that relevant U.S. agencies investigate Tether. The original text does not provide the original post, the full report, or the calculation methodology; therefore, these figures can currently only be regarded as relayed claims.
Why it matters to readers
The news also concerns the sanctions-enforcement capability of the stablecoin issuer and U.S. investigative requests, which may affect public assessment of Tether's compliance measures and USDT-related risks.
Beginners should distinguish between “a senator requests an investigation” and “relevant agencies have formally opened an investigation”; the original text only explicitly mentions the former, and it does not mean that the report's allegations or Tether's response have been independently confirmed.
Risks and unknowns
Paolo Ardoino's original X post was not provided, making it impossible to verify his complete statement.
The full Senate report was not provided, making it impossible to verify the 846 wallets and 84%'s statistical methodology.
The text does not specify 94%'s statistical period, data source, or calculation methodology for the decline.
No address-freezing timestamp records were provided, making it impossible to verify the claim of 4 weeks in advance and 99%.
Related Developments
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The original text does not state whether the U.S. Treasury Department or Department of Justice has formally initiated an investigation.
Related concepts
Stablecoin
An asset that seeks to track a reference value and is subject to risks including depegging, reserves, and redemption.
