News and reports from the Senate (Democratic staff) indicate that the Iranian government is actively using Tether (USDT) to circumvent bank sanctions and transfer money from oil sales.

All of this is happening while the United States is blockading Iranian ports and blocking nearly all imports and exports, including oil.

Of course, part of the money has been blocked or confiscated thanks to the cooperation of exchanges and Tether, the USDT issuer.

However, the network is likely much deeper than what has been discovered so far, and more is yet to be uncovered.

This shows two things.

• Again and again, it shows how hard crypto and blockchain make it to enforce sanctions, and how they can operate beyond the control of governments even under massive sanctions.
• Sanctions like those applied to Iraq in the 1990s are no longer as effective as before. The United States and its allies have to come up with new strategies to make their sanctions more effective, even if China is assisting Iran on the matter.

Image by Pavellllllll from Pixabay