Tether and Circle freeze $2.49 million as Iranian exchange Wallex urgently transfers funds to BSC.

Tether and Circle simultaneously blacklisted an Ethereum hot wallet belonging to the Iranian cryptocurrency exchange Wallex, locking the stablecoin as the platform was transferring assets between blockchains.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT discovered this incident on March 25, 2024. The blocked address was 0x6926…43df, which at the time held approximately $117,000 in Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), and several other smaller Token .

The Wallex merger caused a freeze.

Hours before being blacklisted, Wallex reportedly began accumulating cryptocurrency from multiple hot wallets on TRON and Ethereum, then transferring it to BNB Smart Chain (BSC) via cross-chain bridges.

This plan was only partially successful. Nearly $2.49 million of Binance-Peg BSC-USD was transferred to a different address on BSC, which is 0xf945…ccdd.

That address only recorded three small BNB transactions used for Gas Price. There have been no withdrawals since then. The funds remain completely stagnant.

It's rare for both major stablecoin companies to freeze wallets around the same time, suggesting they may have coordinated to enforce compliance regulations.

Wallex is not currently officially listed by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), but all crypto activities related to Iran risk being subject to broad sanctions.

Strengthen controls on cryptocurrency flows from Iran.

This incident follows a chain of measures to tighten regulations on stablecoins linked to Iran . In January 2026, OFAC sanctioned two UK-registered exchanges, Zedcex and Zedxion, for allegedly facilitating transactions exceeding $1 billion for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Tether alone has blacklisted over $3.3 billion USDT across more than 7,000 wallets since 2023.

Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges are facing increasing pressure. In early March 2024, the Iranian central bank instructed major exchanges, including Wallex and Nobitex, to temporarily suspend USDT toman trading to prevent Capital flight amid a potential military conflict between the US and Israel.

Wallex has not yet issued an official statement. The exchange's website remains operational. The $2.49 million in BSC funds has not yet been transferred, and other wallets associated with the exchange are at risk of experiencing the same situation.