US claims to have seized nearly $500M in Iranian crypto assets
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has stated that Washington has seized “close to half a billion” dollars in Iranian cryptocurrency assets, adding that the US “Operation Economic Fury” has pushed the government in Tehran into “crisis”, News.Az reports, citing Al Jazeera.
“We were able to grab about 350 million crypto assets, and then on top of another 100 that we had recently gotten, so we’re almost at half a billion there, and we are freezing bank accounts everywhere,” Bessent told Fox News.
He said US President Donald Trump had ordered the economic pressure campaign in March of last year and instructed him to “up the pressure again” about three weeks ago.
According to Bessent, the US is now urging foreign governments and companies to sever economic ties with Iran.
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“We have gone to the buyers of Iranian oil and told them that … we are willing to do secondary sanctions on your industries, on your banks who tolerate Iranian oil in their system,” he said.
Bessent also added that the broader economic campaign, along with what he described as a US naval blockade on Iranian ports, would inflict permanent damage on Iran’s economy.
Iran, meanwhile, has dismissed the US campaign, arguing it would only drive oil prices higher. Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf also criticized Bessent, calling his advice to Trump “junk” in a post on X.
By Nijat Babayev
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