Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino is defending the stablecoin issuer against claims that its digital assets have supported financial activity in Iran, arguing that the company’s sanctions enforcement efforts have helped curb suspicious transactions.
The response follows a report released last month by Democrats on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The report alleged that Tether provided “a significant financial lifeline within Iran’s shadow banking network.” Ardoino said Monday that the investigation failed to recognize the company’s progress in identifying and blocking activity linked to sanctioned entities.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, the subcommittee’s leading Democrat, spearheaded the investigation amid growing concerns among lawmakers that cryptocurrencies are being used to facilitate illicit finance. Ardoino countered that Tether often freezes suspicious addresses before they are formally sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) or Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF).
In a post on X, Ardoino said Tether had frozen addresses an average of four weeks before their official designation by OFAC and NBCTF since 2023. He also claimed that the company acted before Chainalysis labeled the addresses in 99% of cases.
According to Ardoino, Tether’s enforcement measures have helped reduce Iran-related stablecoin transaction volumes by 94%.
The executive also responded to the findings during a remote appearance at Washington’s DC Fintech Week last Tuesday. He criticized the decision to share the report with the media before Tether had the opportunity to examine it, stressing that the public should hear the company’s account of the situation.
“I believe it’s important for the public also to hear our side of the story,” he said.
Ardoino said Tether’s priority is to remove illicit actors from the USDT ecosystem. However, he warned that these groups may turn to alternative financial channels that neither Tether nor U.S. authorities can effectively monitor or control.
“Our aim is to push out the bad actors from USDT,” he said, noting that such actors were increasingly moving toward methods outside the control of both the company and the United States.
While acknowledging that the effort is ongoing, Ardoino expressed confidence in Tether’s approach and its contribution to combating financial misconduct.
“I wake up in the morning and I look at myself in the mirror, and I know that we’re doing the right thing,” he said.
The Senate report examined several years of activity, paying particular attention to the period before 2024. Investigators alleged that Tether had not consistently frozen wallets identified as suspicious during that time. The report argued that this gap allowed abuse to continue, claiming that terrorist organizations such as Hamas moved away from Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies toward promoting USDT for transactions.
Blumenthal has since broadened his investigation to include Tether’s relationship with Cantor Fitzgerald, its U.S. financial partner, which has close ties to President Donald Trump’s administration. Last fall, Tether also appointed Bo Hines, Trump’s former White House crypto adviser, to lead its U.S. division.
At the same time, prediction market Kalshi has recently indicated growing expectations that Democrats, including Blumenthal, could regain a Senate majority. Such a political shift could give the senator greater investigative authority and increase congressional scrutiny of cryptocurrency companies.
