Breaking news late at night! The U.S. seizes $1 billion in Iranian crypto assets, 10 billion USDT is frozen, where did the remaining 650 million go? Will Trump’s Bitcoin reserve plan change?

Treasury Secretary Bessent dropped a bomb at the Reagan Forum: the U.S. has seized approximately $1 billion in Iranian crypto assets. He said the U.S. "directly took control of the involved wallets," and characterized the funds as stolen money from the Iranian people. But be careful—he couldn't specify any wallet addresses or clarify the types of tokens involved. The core issue here is a real-world test of Trump's crypto reserve system.

According to the White House's 2025 executive order, digital assets held by the U.S. government are divided into two pools: one is the strategic Bitcoin reserve, which only includes $BTC that has been civilly or criminally confiscated, and once stored, is permanently prohibited from selling; the other is the U.S. digital asset reserve, which contains all other finally confirmed non-$BTC tokens. Once this classification was established, the question of whether Iran’s $1 billion belongs to one pool or the other depends on three variables: the token type, legal status, and exemption clauses.

First, token type. If it’s $BTC and has gone through the legal confiscation process—from seizure to freezing, civil litigation, and final judgment—it can enter the strategic reserve. If it’s a stablecoin or something else, it can only be placed in the second pool, to be handled at the Treasury Secretary’s discretion. More complicated is that, at present, it might not even qualify as "seized"—only "frozen." In April, the U.S. Treasury’s OFAC sanctioned a batch of Iranian-related wallets, freezing $USDT worth 344 million, with TRM Labs verifying those addresses linked to the Central Bank of Iran, the Revolutionary Guard, and Hezbollah. The remaining $656 million has no public details.

Freeze and confiscation are two different things. OFAC sanctions' "freezing" simply prevents movement; the assets are still under the original owner’s name, and the U.S. government does not hold property rights. Law enforcement’s seizure is only a temporary control; ownership is only transferred after a court confiscation ruling. Even if ultimately confiscated, the process involves deducting victim compensation, law enforcement costs, distribution to state governments, legal exemptions, and refunds—only then can the remaining assets enter the treasury. Bessent’s use of "seizure" blurs the legal status.

At an exchange rate of $BTC 73000 USD, $1 billion converts to approximately 13,632 $BTC. The U.S. Justice Department currently holds about 200k compliant $BTC. If this entire amount were fully stored, it would increase the existing stock by 6.8%. But publicly, only the $USDT frozen at 344 million is verifiable; the remaining $656 million, including the tokens involved, remains unknown, and the confiscation procedures are not completed.

From industry data, seizing $1 billion is plausible. Chainalysis reports Iran’s total crypto transfer volume in 2025 was $7.78 billion, with TRM Labs estimating nearly $10 billion. Iran’s leading exchange, Nobitex, has 11 million users, accounting for 70% of domestic trading volume, and has long handled transfers worth hundreds of millions for the Central Bank and Revolutionary Guard. Multiple enforcement actions and stablecoin freezes could logically sum to $1 billion, but asset details cannot be verified.

It’s known that only $344 million USDT accounts for 33%; the remaining 65.6% is a mystery. If the rest of the $656 million is mainly stablecoins, then this case is essentially a compliance and regulation example for stablecoins, with little relation to sovereign $BTC hoarding. The frozen USDT will remain locked; non-$BTC assets, once confiscated, will be transferred into the reserve, with subsequent handling decided by the Secretary. But if large amounts of $BTC are involved, and the U.S. completes confiscation without victim compensation or law enforcement costs, these crypto assets—originally meant to bypass U.S. financial sanctions—could become part of U.S. sovereign reserves.

The executive order also states that confirmed assets can be returned to victims, allocated for case expenses, shared with law enforcement agencies in various states, or legally exempted from return. Any of these steps could cause assets to stall midway, preventing them from entering the reserve. Compared to Trump’s order, this effectively creates a framework for future crypto asset seizures targeting hostile nations: every enforcement action against Iran or North Korea will need to determine three things—token type, legal status, and account classification.

Only if all three conditions are met—asset is $BTC, fully confiscated through legal procedures, and no exemptions apply—can the Iranian assets be added to the U.S. strategic reserve. Otherwise, they remain as frozen USDT or other tokens awaiting disposition by the Secretary. Bessent has not revealed any details yet; this is just the beginning of the show.

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