Bessent says US will 'probably' seize $1 billion in Iran-linked crypto this week

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States will "probably" seize roughly $1 billion in cryptocurrency tied to Iran this week, speaking at Newsmax's NPolicy Summit in Washington on Thursday, Oct. 9, in an interview with Greta Van Susteren reported by The Block.

"We're probably gonna seize a billion dollars of crypto this week," Bessent said. "We know where it is and we are isolating them." He framed it as part of an "absolute isolation campaign" against Tehran — a step up from the earlier "maximum pressure campaign" — that he said also covers Strait of Hormuz blockades, international flight restrictions, and closing Iran's land routes. "It's working," he said.

What Bessent did not provide: he named no wallets or addresses, offered no on-chain evidence, and did not say whether the targeted $1 billion is new or overlaps with amounts the Treasury has already announced. As of this writing the seizure has not occurred, and no supporting Treasury release has accompanied the remarks.

The claim lands against a muddy record of prior figures. In May, Bessent said the US had seized about $1 billion in Iranian crypto, stating authorities "just outright grabbed the wallets" — but a Treasury release shortly after cited a far lower estimate of nearly $500 million, per The Block. In July, Treasury-announced wallet sanctions froze $130 million; on-chain analyst Specter tied the action to four Tron addresses holding roughly $131 million in USDT that Tether blacklisted. The US has also sanctioned seven Iranian crypto exchanges since June: Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin and Ramzinex in June; Shelbit and Aban Tether in August; and BitBank in September, over allegations it moved hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin.

Key facts

• Bessent said the US will "probably" seize ~$1 billion in Iran-linked crypto "this week" (Newsmax NPolicy Summit, Oct. 9, via The Block).
• He named no wallets and did not say whether the sum is additional to prior seizures (The Block).
• May 2026: Bessent cited ~$1 billion seized; a Treasury release cited ~$500 million (The Block).
• July 2026: $130 million frozen via wallet sanctions; analyst Specter linked it to ~$131 million USDT on four Tron addresses blacklisted by Tether (The Block).
• Seven Iranian exchanges sanctioned since June, most recently BitBank in September (The Block).

The real-world read

This is a verbal forecast at a political summit, not a filing or an executed seizure — and Bessent's own numbers have a history of outrunning the Treasury's. His May "about $1 billion" was promptly undercut by a Treasury release citing roughly half that. The refusal to identify wallets or clarify whether this $1 billion is new money or a re-announcement of assets already grabbed makes the figure impossible to verify and easy to double-count. Treat "probably … this week" as a stated intention from an interested official, pending an actual, documented seizure.

This is news coverage, not financial advice.

Sources

• The Block (reputable secondary), Oct. 9, 2026 — Bessent's summit remarks, prior seizure figures and the May $1B/$500M discrepancy, July freeze, analyst Specter's on-chain attribution, and the exchange-sanctions timeline. The outlet attributes the quotes to the Newsmax interview and the on-chain detail to analyst Specter.