Iran’s central bank using vast quantities of cryptocurrency championed by Farage, says report | Iran
Iran’s central bank appears to be using large amounts of a cryptocurrency backed by Nigel Farage, according to a new report.
Elliptic, a crypto analysis company, said it had traced at least $507 million (£377 million) of cryptocurrency passing through accounts appearing to be controlled by Iran’s central bank by Tether, a company praised by the leader of Reform UK.
Elliptic’s report followed what it said was Iran’s central bank’s “systematic accumulation” of Tether stablecoins, a type of crypto pegged to the dollar so it can be easily exchanged for hard currency.
This hinted at “a complex strategy to bypass the global banking system,” perhaps to trade or support Iran’s currency, the rial.
While thousands of people are confirmed to have died during the brutal suppression of the protests, the Iranian regime’s apparent use of Tether’s stablecoins raises questions about Farage’s support for the cryptocurrency.
In September, Farage announced plans to upgrade Tether in a meeting with Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey.
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“I’ll go tomorrow to say that,” Farage said. he told LBC radio. “You know, Tether is a stablecoin. Stablecoins are the way money moves from traditional currencies to cryptocurrencies and back again. Tether is about to be valued as a $500 billion company.”
Farage criticized Bailey for imposing restrictions on crypto and called on the UK to catch up with the US, where Donald Trump, who picked Tether banker Howard Lutnick as trade secretary, is reversing efforts to regulate digital currencies.
Farage added: “You know, stablecoins, crypto – this world is huge and I’ve been insisting for years that London should embrace it. We should become a global trading hub for these things under appropriate regulations.”
Technology investor Christopher Harborne, a major shareholder of Tether, is Reform’s largest donor. His lawyers said Harborne, who is not an executive at Tether, was not responsible for the illegal activities of his users. Lawyers said suggestions that Harborne was profiting from Iran’s use of Tether stablecoins were “baseless nonsense”.
A Reform UK spokesperson said “many companies and organizations around the world” use Tether. They added: “All donations to Reform UK comply with electoral law and regulations. We strictly scrutinize every donation. We continue to actively support the Iranian people in their fight for freedom.”
Rising demand for Tether’s stablecoin, known as USDT, has generated huge returns from the real currency reserves the company holds to maintain its peg to the dollar. Tether’s annual profits of $13 billion are one and a half times that of McDonald’s.
Some of this demand comes from illegal sources. In the face of US, UN and other sanctions that make it difficult to trade, buy foreign currencies and maintain accounts at most banks, Iranians and their executives appear to have turned to Tether’s stablecoins.
Israel last year clarified There are said to be dozens of crypto accounts used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
This led a prominent Iranian businessman to complain to X about the regime’s failure to keep their dealings secret. His the post contained two crypto account numbers The businessman said that these money were used by the central bank of Iran.
Thanks to this apparently unintentional disclosure, Elliptic’s researchers found links between 50 accounts and concluded a “high level of confidence” that these accounts were controlled by Iran’s central bank.
A Tether representative did not answer questions about the Iranian central bank’s use of its stablecoins but said: “Tether maintains a zero-tolerance policy against criminal use of our financial products.”
The representative said Tether complies with US sanctions rules. “We work closely with law enforcement agencies around the world to identify assets and freeze them immediately upon request to prevent further movement of assets if they are found to be linked to illegal activities or illegal actors.”
They added that Tether has cooperated with more than 310 law enforcement agencies in 62 countries and has frozen more than $3.4 billion in assets “linked to criminal activity.”
Tether froze suspicious Revolutionary Guard accounts identified by Israel last year, but many of the accounts apparently used by Iran’s central bank appear to remain active.
