Tether, the company that issues the USDT stablecoin, says it helped authorities freeze close to $550 million in USDT linked to Iran during 2026. Cointelegraph reported the figure on September 29, 2026.
Tether made the claim while facing pressure in Washington. On Monday, a Senate Democrat called for an investigation into the company. Senate Democratic investigators also allege that USDT has become an important tool in Iran's shadow banking network.
So the two sides point to the same token for opposite reasons. Tether cites the frozen funds as evidence that it acts against Iran-linked activity. Its critics in the Senate say USDT is central to how that network moves money. The report does not say whether an investigation will open or what it would cover.
The report also does not say which wallets were frozen, which authorities Tether worked with, or when during the year the freezes happened. No response from Tether to the call for an investigation is described beyond its disclosure of the $550 million figure.
For someone already holding a perpetual position on Bitget, Bybit, MEXC or OKX, this changes nothing directly. The report does not mention any of these exchanges, funding rates, trading fees or liquidity. It also describes no change to USDT beyond the frozen Iran-linked amounts. Right now, this is a political and compliance story, not a change to what it costs to hold a position.
Source: cointelegraph — Tether says it helped freeze $550M in Iran-linked USDT this year