- Tether froze $13.4 million in USDT across 22 Ethereum and Tron addresses as part of compliance and law enforcement cooperation.
- The move continues the firm’s pattern of blocking funds linked to illicit activities, despite ongoing legal disputes.
Tether Continues Aggressive Compliance Measures
Tether Holdings, the issuer of the popular stablecoin USDT, has frozen $13.4 million across 22 wallet addresses on the Ethereum and Tron networks, according to on-chain monitoring firm MistTrack. The move reflects the company’s ongoing efforts to block suspicious funds and cooperate with law enforcement agencies worldwide.
Tether concentrated the largest portion of the frozen funds, $10.3 million, in a single Ethereum address beginning with 0xecbd8. The company also froze another major address on Tron holding roughly $1.4 million USDT. Although the origins and exact reasons for freezing these addresses remain unclear, Tether has a history of actively blocking wallets it suspects are linked to illicit activities.
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A Pattern of Freezing Operations
This freeze is part of a broader pattern that has unfolded over the past year. In June 2025, Tether froze more than $12.3 million on the Tron network, and a similar operation in April 2025 involved $28.67 million across 13 addresses. The company often targets funds associated with darknet markets, sanctioned entities, fraud schemes, or terrorism financing, in line with anti-money-laundering obligations and global financial laws.
Tether actively collaborates with law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, FBI, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control. The firm monitors blockchain activity to prevent the use of funds for illegal purposes and has frozen more than $3.2 billion in USDT connected to criminal activity, coordinating with over 290 agencies across 59 countries. In the past year, Tether blocked a total of 3,660 wallets.
Controversy Surrounding Tether’s Actions
Despite these compliance efforts, Tether’s approach has faced criticism. Texas-based Riverstone Consultancy recently filed a lawsuit against Tether, alleging the firm unlawfully froze $44.7 million in USDT. Riverstone claims the freeze, carried out at the request of Bulgarian authorities, caused missed investment opportunities and bypassed proper international legal channels. Tether has yet to respond officially to the latest freezes, but the company’s history of cooperation with law enforcement suggests these actions are part of its ongoing regulatory compliance strategy.
As the stablecoin market faces increasing scrutiny, Tether’s freezing operations underscore the challenges of balancing user trust, regulatory obligations, and global compliance standards in the rapidly evolving crypto ecosystem.
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