The American company Tether announced that it will block all transactions made in USDT stablecoins by organizations and individuals included in the sanctions list of the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

The announcement by the issuer of the world's most popular stablecoins comes as Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA announced its intention to use dollar-pegged stablecoins (USDT) as the primary means of cross-border export payments for crude oil and fuel oil to circumvent OFAC sanctions.

The US Department of the Treasury, after the entry into force of new sanctions, required PDVSA counterparties to stop all export payments in US dollars for the supply of petroleum products until May 31. It also announced the freezing of dollar assets in PDVSA accounts in any foreign banks.

In December 2023, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino announced that the company he led would continue to cooperate with authorities and law enforcement around the world, and announced the start of a new policy to freeze accounts whose owners are under OFAC sanctions.