Crypto glossary
OFAC sanctions
OFAC sanctions are US Treasury measures that freeze the assets of listed people, entities and crypto addresses and bar US persons from dealing with them.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is part of the US Treasury. It maintains the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list of individuals, companies and countries subject to sanctions. US persons and companies must block their assets and refuse transactions with them, and foreign firms that deal with them risk penalties or losing access to the dollar system.
Since 2018 OFAC has added crypto addresses to its listings, so exchanges and stablecoin issuers screen deposits and withdrawals against them and can freeze funds. It has sanctioned exchanges accused of laundering money, such as Garantex, and in August 2022 it designated the Tornado Cash mixer, which led to legal challenges and to the sanctions being lifted in March 2025.
Receiving funds from a sanctioned address can lead to frozen accounts even when the recipient did nothing wrong. Compliance teams use blockchain analytics tools for screening, but sanctions on open-source code have proved legally contested.
Example
If a stablecoin issuer sees that an address holding 100,000 USDC has been added to the SDN list, it can freeze that balance so the tokens can no longer be moved.
Related terms
Latest articles on OFAC sanctions
- Iran’s Crypto-Funded Hormuz Shipping Scheme Hit by OFAC
- OFAC Freezes $130M in Iran-Linked Wallets
- OFAC Sanctions 134 Crypto Wallets Linked to ISIS-K in a New Counterterror Push
- OFAC Targets Sinaloa Cartel Cash-to-Crypto Network
- Tether Confirms $344M USDT Freeze in Major OFAC‑Linked Enforcement Action
