OFAC sanctions USDT-on-Tron wallets used by Houthis

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—by Protos Staff

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned eight crypto asset wallets tied to Yemen’s Houthi movement. Houthis assist with maritime transport and arms deals from Russia for pro-Iran groups operating in Yemen. 

By making it illegal to transact with their wallets and flagging the wallets for global awareness, OFAC aims to prohibit transactions and block the liquidation of their property. All US-operated crypto exchanges and services must block access to sanctioned wallets, and it is illegal for US residents to transact with entities on OFAC’s sanctions list.

OFAC has designated the Houthis, also known as Ansarallah, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist since February 16, 2024. Today’s action adds more specificity to that designation by delineating the exact crypto wallets that exchanges and other services should block.

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As well as the Houthis, OFAC has targeted crypto wallets that have facilitated the financing of terrorists for many years. Prior crypto industry sanctions include Garantex, Suex, Hydra, Chatex, Bitpapa, and NetEx24. These crypto services aided the laundering of ransomware payments or enabled crypto transfers with sanctioned banks.

The eight wallets designated today were tether (USDT) wallets on the Tron blockchain. USDT exists on over a dozen blockchains, but USDT-on-Tron specifically is the world’s most popular stablecoin by on-chain volume.

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