Tether CEO says Senate report ignored sanctions work as Iran-linked volumes fell

Tether is pushing back against a U.S. Senate report that accused the company of helping money move inside Iran. In a post on X on Monday, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the investigation ignored work the company has done to enforce sanctions, which he said has cut Iran-linked stablecoin activity sharply.

The dispute follows a report issued last month by Democrats on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. It called Tether "a significant financial lifeline within Iran's shadow banking network." A stablecoin is a digital token designed to hold a steady value, usually by tracking the U.S. dollar. Tether's token is called USDT.

What each side is saying

• Senate Democrats, led by Senator Richard Blumenthal, say Tether's tokens have supported financial activity inside Iran and highlighted wider concerns about crypto and illicit finance.
• Ardoino says Tether freezes suspicious addresses weeks before official designations. He wrote that since 2023, Tether has frozen addresses "on average 4 weeks prior" to designations by the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Israel's National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing.
• He also said that for 99% of the addresses Tether froze, the company acted before the blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis flagged them.
• Ardoino said Tether's actions "led to Iran-linked stablecoin volumes declining by 94%."

What the Senate report covers

The Senate report examined events going back several years, including a period before 2024 when, it said, Tether did not freeze flagged wallets across the board. The report said this "absence of deterrence invited abuse," and stated that groups such as Hamas moved from bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies toward promoting USDT.

Ardoino's response at DC Fintech Week

Ardoino also addressed the report remotely at DC Fintech Week last Tuesday. He criticized the timing of its release, saying it went to the media before Tether could review it. "I believe it's important for the public also to hear our side of the story," he said.

He described the company's goal as removing bad actors from USDT, saying those users then move to channels outside both U.S. and Tether's reach. He said the work "is not finished," but added: "I wake up in the morning and I look at myself in the mirror, and I know that we're doing the right thing."

What is confirmed and what is not

It is confirmed that the Senate Democrats' report exists and made these accusations, and that Ardoino publicly disputed it. The figures Ardoino cited — the four-week average lead time, the 99% figure, and the 94% decline in Iran-linked volumes — are his claims. The supplied material contains no independent verification of them, and no response from Blumenthal or the subcommittee to his rebuttal.

What could come next

Blumenthal's interest in Tether appears to extend beyond the Iran report. He has also been examining the relationship between Tether and its U.S. financial partner, Cantor Fitzgerald. The supplied article does not give details on the timeline or outcome of that separate inquiry.

Sources

• CoinDesk