Tether’s Ardoino Fires Back at Senate Over Iran USDT Report

TLDR

• Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino says the company froze flagged addresses an average of four weeks before official sanctions since 2023.
• He claims Tether froze 99% of reported addresses before Chainalysis labeled them.
• Senate Democrats found that 84% of 846 Iran-linked wallets used USDT exclusively or nearly exclusively.
• Senator Richard Blumenthal asked Treasury and the Justice Department to investigate Tether.
• Ardoino says Iran-linked stablecoin volumes fell 94%, but the figures are unverified company claims.

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Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has pushed back on a Senate report about Iran and the USDT stablecoin. In an Oct. 19 post on X, he said the report missed how early Tether acted.

Ardoino said Tether has frozen flagged addresses an average of four weeks before official sanctions since 2023. He said the comparison covered the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing.

Senator Blumenthal’s “analysis” of Tether’s sanctions report misses that, since 2023, Tether froze on average 4 weeks prior to OFAC & NBCTF official sanction designation and for 99% of the times Tether froze the reported addresses before Chainalysis labelled them.

Tether…

— Paolo Ardoino 🤖 (@paoloardoino) October 19, 2026

He also said Tether froze the reported addresses before Chainalysis labeled them 99% of the time. He credited the company’s actions for a 94% drop in Iran-linked stablecoin volumes.

What the Senate report found

The report came from Democratic staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. It found that 84% of 846 Iran-linked wallets used USDT exclusively or nearly exclusively.

Senator Richard Blumenthal led the effort. His office said Tether did not consistently freeze illicit wallets before 2024 and kept missing some addresses.

The report described 39 addresses that Israel linked to a Hezbollah money launderer in June 2023. Tether froze five early but waited until March 2024 to block the other 34.

Investigators said more than $34.6 million in USDT left those wallets after the seizure notice was published. They also noted that Israeli orders sometimes became public weeks or months after they were signed.

Blumenthal sent the findings to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Todd Blanche. He asked them to look into possible violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The request does not include a finding of liability by either department.

Tether’s record on Iran freezes

Tether said in a Sep. 28 statement that it froze nearly $550 million in Iran-linked USDT during 2026. That included more than $344 million across two addresses in April.

OFAC added those two addresses to the Central Bank of Iran’s sanctions entry the next day, according to Tether. The company also cited a July action covering more than $130 million across four wallets.

In a separate case, a federal civil forfeiture complaint targets $61.2 million in USDT across ten TRON addresses. Court records say Tether froze them in June and July 2025.

Ardoino also spoke remotely at DC Fintech Week last Tuesday. He criticized how the report reached the media before Tether could review it.

The timing figures are company claims. The post does not name the addresses used or the number of cases, and no independent data backs the averages.

Blumenthal has also been probing Tether’s relationship with its U.S. partner, Cantor Fitzgerald. The firm has close ties to the Trump administration.

Prediction market Kalshi shows that the odds of Democrats returning to the Senate majority have been rising in recent weeks. Blumenthal is the top Democrat on the subcommittee.