The Israeli Ministry of Defense announced Monday that it had ordered the seizing of 187 crypto wallets allegedly belonging to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard, or the IRGC.
In a detailed document on the seizure order, the Department of Counterterrofinance Bureau (NBCTF) said it was “confident” that the list “cryptocurrency wallet is the property of the IRGC and will be “used to perpetrate serious terrorist crimes.”
The IRGC is a terrorist organization, among other countries, by the US, the European Union and Israel.
According to blockchain monitoring company Elliptic, the named wallet receives $1.5 billion in Tether's Stablecoin USDT. Elliptic co-founder and chief scientist Tom Robinson said the company cannot confirm whether these wallets actually belong to IRGC. Robinson also said the wallet currently holds only $1.5 million.
Israel's Ministry of Defense did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment, so they asked how these 187 wallets could be established that they were linked to the IRGC.
In a blog post, Elliptic said, “Some addresses may be controlled by cryptocurrency services and could become part of the wallet infrastructure used to drive transactions for many customers.”
Amir Rashidi, director of digital rights and security for the Iranian-centric nonprofit Miaan Group, said Israel may have found information about these wallets by hacking it into Iran's infrastructure. Rashidi added: “There have always been rumors that the IRGC is using cryptocurrency to avoid sanctions.”
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“Many of these cases could include exchanges associated with it, like many banks, financial institutions, credit institutions, or companies that appear to be private, rather than a direct part of the IRGC,” he said.
This is not the first time a group lined up in Israel, or at least Israeli, has targeted a stash of Iranian government cryptocurrency.
On June 18, a hacking group called predatory sparrows is believed to have hacked Iran's biggest crypto exchange Nobitex during the so-called 12-day war between Israel and Iran. Hackers stole around $90 million worth of crypto, sent it to inaccessible wallets to “burn” them, effectively destroying the digital fund.
Crypto information companies like Elliptic and TRM Labs have previously said Nobitex was used in IRGC.