Binance Fires Investigators as $1 Billion Iran-Linked USDT Flows Surface
- Binance reportedly fired at least five compliance investigators after they flagged roughly $1 billion in alleged Iran-linked USDT transactions, according to Fortune.
- The transactions were said to involve Tether (USDT) on the Tron blockchain, a network repeatedly cited in recent Iran sanctions enforcement cases.
- The firings come while Binance remains under a US government monitorship following its 2023 $4.3B settlement over AML and sanctions violations.
Binance has fired at least five members of its compliance investigations team after they internally flagged more than $1 billion in transactions allegedly tied to Iranian entities, according to Fortune.Â
The transactions reportedly took place between March 2024 and August 2025. As reported, they were routed using Tether’s USDT stablecoin on the Tron blockchain.
USDT on Tron: A Familiar Pattern For Iran?
The firings allegedly began in late 2025. Several of the dismissed staff had law enforcement backgrounds and held senior investigative roles.Â
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Fortune reported that at least four additional senior compliance staff have also left or been pushed out in recent months.
“investigators on @binance‘s compliance team uncovered evidence that entities tied to Iran had received more than $1 billion through the exchange from March 2024 through August 2025, in potential violation of sanctions laws” pic.twitter.com/uDEnGP5qNt
— Mike Dudas (@mdudas) February 13, 2026
The reported $1 billion in flows were denominated in USDT and moved across the Tron network. That combination has repeatedly appeared in recent sanctions enforcement actions involving Iran-linked activity.
Earlier this month, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two UK-registered crypto exchanges, Zedcex and Zedxion. It’s alleged that the exchanges processed nearly $1 billion in transactions tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).Â
Today, as the people of Iran bravely take to the streets to demand basic freedoms and economic security, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is taking action against the architects of the Iranian regime’s brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators, as well as the…
— Treasury Department (@USTreasury) January 15, 2026
According to OFAC and blockchain analytics reporting cited by TRM Labs and Chainalysis, much of that activity also involved USDT on Tron.
Separately, BeinCrypto reported in January that Iran’s central bank accumulated more than $500 million in USDT amid pressure on the Iranian rial. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said the purchases likely aimed to secure hard-currency liquidity outside the traditional banking system, effectively creating a parallel dollar reserve.
Taken together, these cases show how stablecoins—particularly USDT—have become central to Iran-linked cross-border financial flows.
Binance has not publicly confirmed that the alleged Iran-linked transactions violated sanctions laws, nor has any regulator announced new enforcement action against the company related to this reporting.Â
However, the episode unfolds amid broader scrutiny of stablecoin infrastructure and the role of exchanges in geopolitical sanctions regimes.
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