Bessent: US May Seize $1B More Iran Crypto This Week

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States will "probably" seize $1 billion in cryptocurrency linked to Iran this week. It is the second time in five months he has put a $1 billion figure on Iran-linked crypto seizures, and the two claims have not been reconciled with each other or with Treasury's own prior public estimate.

What Bessent actually said

Speaking at Newsmax's NPolicy Summit in Washington, Bessent told Greta Van Susteren at Newsmax's NPolicy Summit in Washington on Thursday: "We're probably gonna seize a billion dollars of crypto this week," he said. "We know where it is and we are isolating them." He described the effort as part of a broader "absolute isolation campaign," covering Strait of Hormuz blockades, restrictions on international flights, and closing off Iran's land routes with neighboring countries. The Block, which first reported the remarks, noted that Bessent did not identify the targeted wallets or say whether the planned seizure would add to previously announced amounts.

A nearly identical claim from May went unreconciled

This is not the first time Bessent has cited a $1 billion figure. In May, Bessent said the U.S. had seized about $1 billion in Iranian crypto, saying authorities "just outright grabbed the wallets." But a Treasury release shortly after the comment cited the earlier estimate of nearly $500 million, according to The Block. That May announcement came at the Reagan National Economic Forum, where Bessent said the total included a $344 million Tether freeze, according to a report on the event. The Block also reported that Bessent's latest comments did not clarify whether the $1 billion the Treasury is targeting is additional to the previously announced seizures, and separately noted that Treasury has sanctioned seven Iranian crypto exchanges since June. Treasury has not published an itemized, running tally of Iran-linked crypto seizures that would let outside observers independently verify either the May or October figures.

What other data shows about Iran's crypto activity

Separate from Treasury's seizure claims, stablecoin issuer Tether has published its own figures on Iran-linked freezes. Tether said actions involving its USD₮ stablecoin have resulted in approximately $550 million in assets frozen during 2026 across wallets that U.S. authorities identified as tied to sanctioned Iranian networks, in a statement dated September 28, 2026. That figure is Tether's own accounting of stablecoin freezes it executed at law enforcement's request, not a Treasury seizure total, and the two numbers are not directly comparable: freezing a stablecoin wallet blocks funds in place, while a Treasury "seizure" implies the government has taken custody of the assets. On the scale of Iran's broader crypto activity, Chainalysis estimated Iran's cryptocurrency ecosystem handled more than $7.78 billion in activity during 2025. That figure describes total transaction volume across Iran's crypto ecosystem for a prior full year, not funds frozen or seized, so it should not be added to or subtracted from the seizure or freeze figures above.

Key figures at a glance

What this means for readers trying to track the number

For anyone trying to follow how much Iran-linked crypto the US government has actually taken control of, the honest answer right now is that it is not clearly established. The Block's reporting states that the latest blitz follows months of U.S. actions against Iran-linked cryptocurrency and exchanges, though the total value of crypto seized is unclear. Bessent has used the same round number, $1 billion, twice in five months without saying whether the second figure builds on the first or restates it, and Treasury's own prior release put the May total at roughly half that amount. Readers should treat the Oct. 8 remark as a stated intention and estimate, not a confirmed, audited seizure, until Treasury publishes an itemized accounting or a forfeiture filing tied to specific wallets. Separately, the earlier sanctioning of Nobitex, which Treasury described as Iran's largest digital asset exchange, illustrates the enforcement mechanism at work: Treasury's press release states that Nobitex also helped the Central Bank of Iran access hundreds of millions of dollars in stablecoins used to prop up the plummeting value of the Iranian rial, while enabling regime insiders to access international digital asset exchanges and evade sanctions across multiple jurisdictions. That is a separate, specific action from the general $1 billion figures above and should not be assumed to already be included in them.