134 Wallets Walk Into an SDN List: Tether Freezes $1.4M in ISIS-K Crypto 🍦

The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned 134 cryptocurrency wallet addresses tied to ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K), a Specially Designated Global Terrorist since September 2015, according to a Wednesday update to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. The designations span 131 Tron (TRX) addresses and three Monero (XMR) addresses identified as belonging to the group, blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis reported. Stablecoin issuer Tether froze balances associated with all 131 Tron addresses, leaving the three Monero addresses unaffected by the company's action.

Since 2023, the 131 sanctioned Tron addresses received more than $1.4 million in crypto donations and sent over $880,000, according to Chainalysis. The firm said it identified multiple ISIS-K donation addresses across Tron, Monero (XMR) and Bitcoin ($BTC) networks, with some wallets routing funds to Syria-based cryptocurrency exchanges and others interacting with mainstream services. ISIS-K's media arm, al-Azaim Media Foundation, has historically solicited donations through websites and messaging platforms, with individual contributions typically small in size reflecting supporters' modest means.

The action follows a June 22 round of sanctions in which OFAC designated three individuals and six entities across Europe, the Middle East and West Africa — including Syria-based MSB Bitcoin Xchange and Turkish MSB Spider — targeting what OFAC described as "key facilitators who enable ISIS to move funds among its regional affiliates." ISIS-K operates across Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of Central Asia, and in 2023 OFAC designated Maldives-based operative Ali Shafiu, whose Tron wallet interacted with deposit addresses tied to Iranian exchanges, per Chainalysis.

Tether's latest freeze is part of a broader pattern of private-sector enforcement. The company's T3 Financial Crime Unit, operated with Tron and TRM Labs, has frozen more than $450 million in illicit crypto since its September 2024 debut, BeInCrypto reported in May. Separately, blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs said in April that onchain evidence was key to securing terrorism financing convictions of three individuals in Indonesia in 2024 and 2025, with TRM stating that "cryptocurrency evidence — wallet addresses, transaction histories, on-chain flows — is not only admissible but can anchor a terrorism financing prosecution."