OFAC Targets ISIS-K Crypto Funding Network
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated 134 cryptocurrency wallet addresses associated with ISIS-K (Islamic State – Khorasan Province) as sanctioned entities. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis reported that the list includes 131 addresses on the Tron (TRX) network, which collectively received over $1.4 million in cryptocurrency donations. In response, stablecoin issuer Tether has frozen the USDT holdings on these 131 Tron addresses, effectively immobilizing the funds.
This move underscores the U.S. government’s ongoing efforts to disrupt terrorist financing channels, particularly those exploiting cryptocurrencies for fundraising. By updating the sanctions list, OFAC aims to cut off ISIS-K’s access to digital asset donations, while Tether’s cooperation restricts the liquidity of the designated wallets. The concentration of frozen addresses on the Tron blockchain highlights the preference of militant groups for low-cost, high-throughput networks. Chainalysis’s data provided critical on-chain evidence linking the wallets to the terror group.