OFAC Blacklists 134 Crypto Wallets Tied to ISIS-K After $1.4M in Tron Transactions

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated 134 cryptocurrency wallet addresses linked to ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K) on Wednesday, covering 131 Tron addresses and 3 Monero addresses. Tether moved swiftly to freeze balances held across all 131 Tron wallets following the action.

According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, the 131 Tron wallets received more than $1.4 million in funds since 2023 and sent out more than $880,000 over the same period. The scale of activity underscores the group's sustained effort to leverage cryptocurrency networks for financial operations.

ISIS-K, the Islamic State affiliate operating primarily across Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of Central Asia, relied on its media arm — al-Azaim Media Foundation — to solicit cryptocurrency donations. The foundation used websites and messaging platforms to distribute wallet addresses tied to the Tron, Monero, and Bitcoin networks, Chainalysis reported. The firm said it identified historical donation addresses connected to the group across all three networks.

Wednesday's action highlights the expanding role that centralized stablecoin issuers now play in enforcing international sanctions. Tether had previously frozen more than $182 million in USDT across five Tron wallets in January under its existing sanctions compliance policy, and the latest freeze adds to that track record.

In a separate but concurrent action, OFAC also sanctioned a Brazil-linked financial network connected to Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), which the U.S. Treasury identified as Latin America's largest criminal gang. That network laundered more than $30 million in illicit proceeds originating in the United States and used cryptocurrency as a vehicle to transfer funds back to Brazil, according to the Treasury Department.

The dual designations — targeting both a terrorist financing network and a transnational criminal laundering operation — reflect OFAC's continued focus on cryptocurrency's role in illicit financial flows. The inclusion of Monero addresses alongside Tron wallets is notable, as Monero's privacy-preserving architecture makes tracing and freezing funds significantly more difficult than on transparent blockchains.

Chainalysis noted that the collaboration between government designators and stablecoin issuers represents a structural shift in how sanctions are implemented in the digital asset space, with private-sector actors now serving as a key enforcement mechanism in near real time.