The Israeli Defense Ministry announced on Monday that it ordered the seizure of 187 cryptographic wallets allegedly belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard of Iran or IRGC.
In a document that details the seizure orderThe Ministry of Terrorist National Funding Office (NBCTF) said it was “convinced that encryption wallets” in the list are owned by IRGC and “used to commit a serious crime of terrorism”.
IRGC is ratified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, including countries.
According to Blockchain Elliptic monitoring company, named wallets have received $ 1.5 billion over time at Tether’s USDT Stablecoin. Co -founder and chief scientist at Elliptic Tom Robinson said the company could not confirm whether these wallets actually belong to IRGC. Robinson also said that wallets today have only $ 1.5 million, a fraction of capital that is moving to date.
The Israeli Defense Ministry did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comments, asking how he was able to prove that these 187 wallets were linked to IRGC.
In a blog postElliptic said “some of the addresses can be controlled by encryption services and could be part of the wallet infrastructure used to facilitate transactions for many customers”.
Amir Rashidi, Director of Digital Rights and Security in the non -profit organization that focuses on Iran Miaan groupHe said it is possible that Israel will find information about these wallets with piracy in Iran’s infrastructure. Rashidi added that “there have always been rumors that IRGC used encryption to bypass sanctions.”
TechCrunch event
Francisco
|
27-29 October 2025
“Many of these cases may, for example, include exchanges that are not directly part of IRGC but are associated with it, similar to many banks, financial and credit institutions or even companies that appear to be private,” he said.
This is not the first time that Israel, or at least the groups of Israel aligned, have targeted Iran’s Stash Cryptocurrency.
On June 18, during the so -called twelve -day war between Israel and Iran, a hacking group called Dedatory Sparrow, believed to have links with the Israeli government that lost Iran Nobitex’s largest encryption exchange. The hackers stole encryption worth about $ 90 million and then “burned” it by sending it into inaccessible wallets, effectively destroying digital funds.
Encrypt information companies like Elliptical and TRM LABS Previously said that Nobitex was used by IRGC.
