Israel Reveals: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Holds $1.5B in Stablecoins

Iran's elite military force just became one of crypto's biggest whales—and they're playing with stablecoins.

The $1.5B Portfolio

Forget gold reserves or offshore accounts. The Revolutionary Guard parked their war chest in digital dollars—Tether and USDC mostly—proving even geopolitical adversaries trust code over traditional finance. They're not hodling for moonshots; they're leveraging stable assets for global operations without banking headaches.

Sanctions? What Sanctions?

Blockchain doesn't care about embargoes. While traditional finance slams doors shut, crypto networks stay open 24/7. The Guard moves value across borders like sending an email—no SWIFT delays, no intermediary questions. It's the ultimate financial bypass for nations playing by their own rules.

The Irony of It All

Western regulators panic about crypto enabling crime, while state actors quietly build treasury-grade positions. Meanwhile, your average investor gets KYC'd into oblivion for buying $100 of Bitcoin—because apparently, we're the risky ones. Nothing says 'financial innovation' like watching geopolitical rivals outperform hedge funds with better crypto strategies.

What to know

• Israel’s counter-terror bureau listed 187 crypto addresses it claims are tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, sanctioned by the U.S., EU, U.K. and Canada.

• Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said those addresses received $1.5B in USDT, but cautioned that some may belong to exchanges rather than directly to the IRGC.

• Tether has already blacklisted 39 of the flagged wallets, freezing $1.5M, amid rising scrutiny of Iran’s alleged use of crypto to evade sanctions.

The National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing of Israel (NBCTF) has published a list of 187 cryptocurrency addresses it says are linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a group sanctioned and designated as terrorist by the U.S., EU, U.K. and Canada.

According to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, those addresses collectively received $1.5 billion in USDT, Tether’s dollar-pegged stablecoin. However, Elliptic cautioned that it cannot verify that all these funds are directly connected to the IRGC, since some wallets may belong to exchanges or services used by multiple customers.

The use of USDT exposes such wallets to one of Tether’s most powerful compliance tools: blacklisting. Of the 187 addresses flagged by Israel, 39 have already been frozen by Tether as of September 13, preventing further transfers of roughly $1.5 million in USDT.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has been tied to illicit crypto activity for years. Just last week, the U.S. Justice Department seized nearly $600,000 in USDT from an Iranian national accused of building drone navigation systems for the IRGC.

In December 2024, U.S. Treasury sanctions targeted wallets linked to IRGC networks moving more than $300 million in stablecoins via an intermediary connected to Yemen’s Houthis.

And in June 2025, the pro-Israel hacker group Gonjeshke Darande (“Predatory Sparrow”) stole $90 million from Iranian crypto exchange Nobitex, which Elliptic and others have linked to IRGC activities including ransomware operations. The hackers “burned” the stolen funds in vanity wallets marked with anti-IRGC slogans, and even leaked Nobitex’s source code.

The hack was seen as a hammer blow to Iran, which is alleged to have used crypto to evade sanctions.