Treasury Department Sanctions Over 130 ISIS-Affiliated Crypto Wallets on Tron

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned more than 130 cryptocurrency wallet addresses this week tied to ISIS, with the overwhelming majority operating on the Tron blockchain.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added 134 crypto wallets to existing sanctions on ISIS-K, the Islamic State’s affiliate operating in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia. Of those addresses, 131 were on Tron and three on Monero.

The sanctioned Tron addresses have received more than $1.4 million since 2023 and sent over $880,000 during that period, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. The firm noted that stablecoin issuer Tether has frozen balances affiliated with all 131 sanctioned Tron wallets.

ISIS-K’s media arm, the al-Azaim Media Foundation, has historically solicited cryptocurrency donations through websites and messaging platforms. Several of the newly sanctioned wallets sent crypto to Syria-based exchanges, Chainalysis said.

Tron, founded by crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, has a long history of usage by entities sanctioned or otherwise targeted by the U.S. government. Earlier this year, Tether froze $344 million worth of USDT in Tron wallets flagged by federal authorities as having connections to illicit activity.  

This week’s new ISIS-related Tron sanctions come as Sun’s relationship with President Donald Trump’s family—once rosy—has sharply deteriorated. Once among the largest financial backers of the Trump family’s crypto ambitions, Sun sued the family’s crypto platform World Liberty Financial in April, alleging the company unlawfully froze his tokens and stripped him of governance rights.

World Liberty has since countersued for defamation, accusing Sun of orchestrating a campaign to suppress the token’s price and then defaming the company after his assets were frozen.

In a separate action Wednesday, OFAC also sanctioned two Brazilian nationals and four companies tied to the criminal organization Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), alleging they used crypto to move more than $30 million in drug trafficking proceeds, generated in the United States, back to Brazil.