Iran’s central bank stacked $507M USDT last year, report

Elliptics research mapped out a network of wallets helping to move over $500 million worth of USDT.

Additionally, Elliptic believes that the USDT was gathered to help Irans government bypass sanctions and work with its own banking network that treats the currency as “digital off-book eurodollar accounts.”

Tether is run by CEO, Paolo Ardoino, and has reached a market capitalization of over $186 billion. It currently boasts shareholders tied to growing right-wing populism in the UK, is a key tool for a network of international scammers, and is used globally to move dollar-backed crypto across markets.

Iran stopped sending USDT to Nobitex

Most of the USDT was sent to sanctioned crypto exchange Nobitex in the first half of last year. The exchange is the largest in Iran, and has previously been linked by Elliptic to Irans Revolutionary Guards and “cross-border sanctions evasion apparatus.”

However, by June 2025, the USDT was redirected away from Nobitex and instead bridged from the Tron blockchain to Ethereum where it was converted into various other assets.

Elliptic notes that the movement of USDT coincides with the $90 million hack that Nobitex suffered in the same month.

Pro-Israel hackers targeted the exchange on June 18 and later threatened to target further institutions supporting Irans military.

Days later, the US joined Isreal in bombing Iran over nuclear obligations breaches. Iran has been sanctioned on and off since the late 70s, and more recently, was sanctioned by the UN in September 2025 over its nuclear program.

The country has recently seen a number of anti-government protests that have led to an internet blackout and violent government crackdown thats killed anywhere between 5,000 and 20,000 people.

According to a UK government research brief, the protests were reportedly triggered by the countrys economic problems, as well as upset over its support of Middle Eastern armed groups.

It also highlighted a desire for the country to return to a monarchy, specifically under the rule of Reza Pahlavi, who was exiled in 1979.