Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business the US has seized roughly $1 billion in Iranian crypto since the war began in February. His phrasing was blunt: "Just outright grabbed the wallets. Some of them may be typing in right now and might not realize their wallet has been grabbed." Iran was allegedly moving $400 to $500 million a month through crypto.
The stablecoin issuer transferred 951 BTC from a Bitfinex hot wallet into its cold reserve on April 15. Tether's BTC position now exceeds $7.1 billion with $2.175 billion in unrealized gains. The company has never sold from the reserve.
Tether's USDT dominates with $185 billion in market cap but faces ongoing transparency questions. Circle's USDC is smaller at $78 billion but audited monthly by Deloitte, MiCA-compliant, and now leads in transaction volume. Here is what the data says about which one to trust with long-term holdings.
The $150 million recovery plan will fund user reimbursements as Drift relaunches with USDt as its settlement asset. Circle faced heavy criticism for not freezing $232 million in USDC that the North Korea-linked attacker moved through its own bridge.
Tether's USDT underpins $187 billion in crypto liquidity. It settles more daily volume than most traditional payment networks. If it failed, the damage would not be contained to one token. It would cascade through DeFi, centralized platforms, and emerging market payment rails simultaneously.
Two Tron wallets holding $212.9M and $131.3M were blacklisted in a coordinated move with US authorities, roughly doubling Tether's previous record freeze.
PUSD moves into a network co-built by First Abu Dhabi Bank, opening a direct path into a $3 trillion finance corridor.
