1 year ago
Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, and crypto speech OKX person partnered with the U.S. Department of Justice to prehend $225 million, the largest-ever frost of USDT successful history, according to a Nov. 20 statement.
The frozen USDT was linked to an planetary quality trafficking syndicate successful Southeast Asia that orchestrated a planetary “pig butchering” romance scam. Per the statement, the funds were locked successful aggregate self-custodied wallets linked to the transgression group.
The freezing occurred pursuing an probe facilitated by Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics firm. Tether and OKX collaborated by notifying the DOJ and different instrumentality enforcement bodies astir the illicit money movements, starring to the DOJ’s petition to frost the wallets involved.
Tether clarified that the frozen wallets aren’t straight tied to its customers and asserted the legality of the freeze. The steadfast besides committed to moving with instrumentality enforcement and the wallet owners to resoluteness the situation.
This improvement aligns with caller efforts by crypto-related entities to deter unlawful money transfers done cryptocurrencies. Earlier, Tether froze 32 addresses holding $873,118.34 connected to illicit activities successful Israel and Ukraine. Additionally, the institution has seized astir $835 cardinal successful assets, chiefly associated with thefts and different unlawful activities.
Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, emphasized the firm’s stance against amerciable crypto usage, adding that the institution aims to found higher information standards successful the crypto sphere. Ardoino further stressed the value of exertion and collaborations to combat unlawful activities proactively.
Similarly, OKX’s Chief Innovation Officer, Jason Lau, highlighted the exchange’s committedness to partnering with instrumentality enforcement and manufacture stakeholders to foster spot and lend to nationalist welfare. Lau affirmed OKX’s proactive engagement successful specified initiatives successful the future.
Over the past year, Tether has emerged arsenic the undisputed person successful the stablecoin space, with its circulating proviso astatine astir 88 cardinal and a marketplace dominance of 70%, according to CryptoSlate’s data.
The station Tether, OKX collaborate with DOJ to prehend grounds $225M successful illicit USDT funds appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.
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