The United States has seized approximately $1 billion in Iran's cryptocurrency assets, nearly double the government's previous estimate.

Speaking on Friday at the 2026 Reagan National Economic Forum, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. believes Iran had been stealing about $400 to $500 million a month through sanctions evasion. "This is money that's been stolen from the Iranian people," Bessent said.

"I believe that we have seized about a billion dollars of their crypto," Bessent told Fox News' Larry Kudlow. "Just outright grabbed the wallets. Some of them may be typing in right now and might not realize that their wallet has been grabbed."

On April 29, Bessent said the U.S. had seized "nearly $500 million" in Iranian crypto assets.

"We are freezing bank accounts everywhere. More importantly, we are making people less willing to deal with the regime," Bessent said at the time.

In August 2025, Bessent said the U.S. government would not be buying bitcoin for its strategic reserve but would continue to use confiscated assets to build it up. He reaffirmed that front this past January.

"The policy of this government is to add seized bitcoin to our digital asset reserve after the damages are done," Bessent said earlier this year. "So the bitcoin reserve, our view, was first you have to stop selling, which we have done, and then we can add the assets and asset forfeitures."

The U.S. government holds approximately 328,372 BTC, according to Arkham, making it the largest known state holder of Bitcoin in the world. At current prices, that's worth just over $24 billion.

The price of bitcoin (BTC) is trading around $73,500, according to The Block's data.