Tether blocks $12.3M in USDT tied to suspicious Tron addresses

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Tether, issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin USDt, has frozen implicit $12.3 cardinal of integer assets connected the Tron Network, continuing its clampdown connected illicit enactment successful the crypto space.

Tether froze the USDt (USDT) astatine 9:15 americium UTC connected June 15 connected Tron, blockchain data from Tronscan shows.

While Tether has not issued a nationalist statement, the frost apt stems from concerns implicit imaginable sanctions violations oregon Anti-Money Laundering (AML) risks.

“Tether enforces a strict wallet-freezing argumentation to combat wealth laundering, atomic proliferation and violent financing and is besides aligned with the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List,” Tether wrote successful a March 7 blog post.

The argumentation is aligned with the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list.

Cointelegraph reached retired to Tether for remark connected the money frost but did not person a effect by work time.

Tether’s asset-freezing abilities received renewed involvement connected March 6 erstwhile it froze $27 million successful USDT connected the Garantex crypto exchange.

That aforesaid day, the speech halted operations, claiming that “Tether has entered the warfare against the Russian crypto marketplace and blocked our wallets worthy much than 2.5 cardinal rubles [$27 million].”

In April 2022, OFAC became the archetypal entity to spot sanctions connected Garantex, claiming that the speech disregarded AML and different regulatory requirements.

Despite the erstwhile freeze, blockchain analytics steadfast Global Ledger identified much than $15 cardinal successful progressive reserves tied to Garantex connected June 5, Cointelegraph reported.

Lazarus-linked funds nether scrutiny

While immoderate decentralization advocates person criticized Tether’s asset-freezing ability, the mechanics has prevented hundreds of millions of dollars worthy of crypto from being laundered by illicit actors.

The T3 Financial Crimes Unit (FCU), spearheaded by stablecoin issuer Tether, the Tron Network and TRM Labs, collectively froze $126 million worthy of USDT successful its archetypal six months, Cointelegraph reported successful January 2025.

The FCU was formed to assistance instrumentality enforcement agencies worldwide successful freezing illicit transactions.

Lazarus is among the astir notorious groups of crypto hackers, archetypal emerging successful 2009 and stealing implicit $3 cardinal successful crypto assets successful the six years starring up to 2023.

The value of these initiatives was highlighted by the North Korean state-backed Lazarus Group, which laundered implicit $200 million worthy of stolen crypto betwixt 2020 and 2023.

Over $374,000 worthy of stolen funds were blacklisted by Tether successful November 2023, portion 3 retired of 4 stablecoin issuers person blacklisted an further $3.4 cardinal sitting successful a clump of addresses associated with Lazarus, according to ZachXBT.