The U.S. Treasury has broadened its sanctions against Iran to encompass the entire digital asset industry of the country, allowing the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to take action against industry operators regardless of their location. This measure took effect on August 24 and includes sanctions on gold, shipping, aviation, and technology. Elliptic has tracked that the Central Bank of Iran has acquired at least $507 million worth of USDT; Tether froze $344 million USDT related to the bank in April. Iran obtains crypto assets through Bitcoin mining, with Elliptic estimating that its Bitcoin mining accounts for about 4.5% of the global total, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto assets annually. The measure does not automatically sanction all Iranian cryptocurrency users, but it grants the U.S. Treasury greater authority to target the industry and supporters of designated entities.