The United States has seized about $1 billion in cryptocurrency linked to Iran, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, describing the action as part of a broader campaign to cut off funding channels used by Tehran.
Speaking in an interview on Fox Business, Bessent said US authorities had “seized the wallets” and seized the Iran-linked cryptocurrency.
He said the effort was part of Operation Economic Fury, an administrative initiative aimed at restricting Iran’s access to foreign revenues, banking networks and digital asset infrastructure.
“Additionally, Treasury has cracked down on Tehran’s global shadow banking networks; designated networks supplying weapons and other military components to Iran; sanctioned a corrupt Iraqi official who facilitated the sale of oil alongside Iranian-backed militias operating in Iraq,” read a Treasury press release.
Bessent said the pressure campaign had contributed to the deterioration of economic conditions in Iran. He said large numbers of military personnel were not being paid, police officers were not showing up for work and inflation had exceeded 200 percent.
He also said Iranian authorities had resorted to food stamps and internet shutdowns.
The Treasury secretary said the United States and its partners were also targeting real estate and other assets abroad that he described as misappropriated income from the Iranian people.
He added that Iranian officials had already been transferring hundreds of millions of dollars each month before Treasury’s intervention.
Read more: Iran crisis puts regime’s $7.8 billion underground crypto economy in spotlight
