Israel’s Ministry of Protection introduced on Monday that it was ordering the seizure of 187 crypto wallets that allegedly belong to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC.
In a doc detailing the seizure order, the ministry’s Nationwide Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) mentioned it was “satisfied that the cryptocurrency wallets” within the record are property of the IRGC and are “used for the perpetration of a extreme terror crime.”
The IRGC is sanctioned as a terrorist group by the USA, the European Union, and Israel, amongst different nations.
In keeping with blockchain monitoring agency Elliptic, the named wallets have acquired $1.5 billion over time in Tether’s stablecoin USDT. Elliptic’s co-founder and chief scientist Tom Robinson mentioned that the corporate can not affirm whether or not these wallets do certainly belong to the IRGC. Robinson additionally mentioned that the wallets at present solely maintain $1.5 million, a fraction of the funds that moved via them till at the moment.
Israel’s Ministry of Defence didn’t reply to TechCrunch request for remark, asking questions on the way it was capable of set up that these 187 wallets are linked to the IRGC.
In a weblog submit, Elliptic mentioned that “among the addresses could also be managed by cryptocurrency companies and might be a part of pockets infrastructure used to facilitate transactions for a lot of prospects.”
Amir Rashidi, the director of digital rights and safety on the Iran-focused nonprofit Miaan Group, mentioned it’s doable Israel discovered details about these wallets by hacking into Iran’s infrastructure. Rashidi added that “there have been all the time rumors that the IRGC was utilizing cryptocurrency to bypass sanctions.”
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
“And nicely, many of those instances would possibly, for instance, contain exchanges that aren’t immediately a part of the IRGC however are linked to it, much like many banks, monetary and credit score establishments, and even corporations that seem like non-public,” he mentioned.
This isn’t the primary time Israel, or no less than Israeli-aligned teams, targets Iran’s authorities cryptocurrency stash.
On June 18, through the so-called Twelve-Day Struggle between Israel and Iran, a hacking group believed to have hyperlinks to Israel’s authorities known as Predatory Sparrow hacked Iran’s larget crypto alternate Nobitex. The hackers stole round $90 value of crypto after which “burned” by sending it to inaccessible wallets, successfully destroying the digital funds.
Crypto intelligence corporations like Elliptic and TRM Labs beforehand mentioned that Nobitex was utilized by the IRGC.
{content material}
Supply: {feed_title}