Bessent Says US Will Probably Seize $1 Billion of Iranian Crypto This Week

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Newsmax's NPolicy Summit in Washington on October 9: "We're probably going to seize $1 billion of crypto this week. We know where it is. We are isolating them." He did not say which assets would be seized or how. Cointelegraph reported that the seizure is part of a wider policy of isolating Iran.

The figure is hard to read on its own. In May, Bessent said the United States had already seized about $1 billion in Iranian crypto. It is unclear whether the new figure is a new target or overlaps with that total. Earlier actions give some idea of the method. Washington froze a $130 million wallet linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Tether froze $344 million of its dollar token (USDT) at two addresses tied to the IRGC. Bitcoin held in self-custody cannot be frozen this way. Tokens whose issuer keeps a freeze function in its contract can.

The US government itself has become a large crypto holder through forfeitures. Cointelegraph reports that its crypto holdings are down $16 billion from their peak a year ago. The fall reflects lower prices rather than sales. Bessent is also in a public dispute with Senator Elizabeth Warren. On October 11 he cited her "complete paucity of knowledge about financial markets", so Treasury's crypto policy is moving forward without a settled consensus in Congress.

Each side has its own reason to shape the numbers. Treasury gains when it shows that sanctions reach on-chain value, both as pressure on Tehran and as a deterrent to anyone handling Iranian flows. Iran gains by playing down how much of its reserves sit on rails that can be frozen. Neither side has published wallet-level evidence for this week's figure.