Tether Iran Dispute: Ardoino Pushes Back Against Senate

On October 19, 2026, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino disputed Senator Richard Blumenthal’s interpretation of a Senate report, saying Tether froze Iran-linked crypto addresses about four weeks before U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control and Israeli National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing designations and he attributed a 94% decline in Iran-linked stablecoin volumes to those actions. The September 28 report by Democratic staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations examined 846 Iran-linked wallets; 84% used USDT almost exclusively. It cited 39 wallets tied to Hezbollah financier Tawfiq Muhammad Sa’id Al-Law that Israel’s NBCTF designated in June 2023: Tether froze five, while 34 stayed open until March 2024 and over $34.6 million in USDT left.