Bitcoin has long been hailed as a digital safe haven given its scarce, decentralized, and non-sovereign features. But the U.S.-Iran crisis has poked holes in the ‘non-sovereign’ argument for the asset class. 

During a recent interview at the Reagan National Economic Forum, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent disclosed that, 

We’ve seized about $1B of their (Iranian) crypto. Just outright grabbed the wallets. Some of them may be typing right now and may never realize that their wallets have been grabbed.

In April, Secretary Bessent confirmed that they seized $344M of Iranian crypto assets after collaborating with Tether, the stablecoin issuer of USDT.

In fact, Bessent vowed to “target all financial lifelines” of the…