Bessent says US will "probably" seize $1 billion of Iran-linked crypto; no seizure confirmed yet

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday, October 8, that the United States will "probably" seize about $1 billion of Iran-linked crypto "this week," according to The Block. He spoke at Newsmax's NPolicy Summit in Washington and added: "We know where it is and we are isolating them." Several crypto videos have since reported the seizure as a coming certainty. It is a statement of intent, and as of Monday morning we found no report that it has happened.

What is and is not known

• No wallets named. Bessent did not identify the addresses or the assets targeted.
• No confirmation. The week he referred to has ended and The Block's report contains no seizure announcement. We did not find one elsewhere.
• Unclear whether it is new. It is not stated whether the $1 billion is additional to amounts disclosed earlier.

The earlier numbers do not line up

In late May, Bessent said on Fox Business that the US had seized about $1 billion in Iranian crypto, per Fox Business. The Block reports that a Treasury release shortly afterward cited a lower figure of nearly $500 million. In July, wallet sanctions led to about $130 million being frozen, and on-chain analyst Specter linked the action to four Tron addresses holding roughly $131 million in USDT that Tether blacklisted. So the total actually seized or frozen is not clear, and a new $1 billion could overlap with it.

Why traders care, and why it is not simple

One question circulating is whether seized coins would go into the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The mix matters: much of what has been frozen so far has been USDT on Tron, which Tether can blacklist, rather than bitcoin. Stablecoins that are frozen are not a reserve asset in the same sense. Until the government names what it holds, the supply effect on bitcoin is unknowable, and there is no basis for reading it as a buying program.

It is also a reminder that the sanctions push is targeting crypto rails directly, in a campaign Bessent tied to the Strait of Hormuz blockade and Iran's land routes. See our coverage of Treasury's tanker sanctions.

Sources: The Block; Fox Business; Decrypt. Information, not investment advice.