The agency believes these wallets were used to finance terrorism, TechCrunch reports, citing an official statement from the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF).
According to the document, the ministry is confident the specified wallets belong to the IRGC and were used “to commit a grave terrorist offense”.
Funds Volume and Analyst Positions
According to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, roughly $1.5 млрд in the USDT stablecoin has flowed to these addresses over time. At present, only $1.5 млн remains on them. Elliptic cofounder Tom Robinson noted the company cannot confirm the wallets in fact belong to the IRGC.
In a separate note, Elliptic clarified that some of the addresses may be controlled by crypto services and function as part of infrastructure for processing client transactions unrelated to the IRGC.
Possible Origin of the Data
Amir Rashidi, Director of Digital Rights and Security at the Iranian NGO Miaan Group, suggested that Israel may have obtained the wallet information by hacking Iranian infrastructure. He added that rumors about the IRGC using cryptocurrencies to bypass sanctions have circulated for a long time.
According to Rashidi, some cases may involve exchangers and other financial entities that are not formally part of the IRGC but are connected to it in a similar way to banks, credit institutions, and companies that outwardly appear private.
Earlier Actions
This is not the first instance of Israel or groups linked to it intervening in Iran’s cryptoassets. On June 18, during the conflict dubbed the “twelve-day war” between Israel and Iran, the hacker group Predatory Sparrow, reportedly tied to the Israeli government, breached Iran’s largest crypto exchange, Nobitex. About $90 млн in digital assets was stolen and then sent to inaccessible wallets, effectively rendering the funds unusable.
Previously, analytics firms Elliptic and TRM Labs reported that Nobitex was used by the IRGC.
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