Tether and the UNODC recently announced a partnership to combat drug-related crime in Africa.
- Whale Alert said that Tether blacklisted five TRON wallets that held about $182 million in USDT.
- Industry experts like Paul Faecks called it ‘one of the largest blacklists’ he has seen in a long time.
- TRON serves as a USDT rail, with over $82 billion in circulation, approximately 20 times greater than the amount of USDC on Base.
Tether froze about $182 million in Tether (USDT) across five Tron wallets, as per Whale Alert.
The Blockchain monitoring firm Whale Alert flagged the move on X, noting that the five wallets held roughly $12 million to $50 million in USDT before being blacklisted on Saturday. Paul Faecks, founder of Plasma, described the incident as “one of the largest blacklists” he could remember.
Tron, a public blockchain network widely used for stablecoin transfers, particularly Tether’s stablecoin USDT. Tron hosts over $82 billion of the circulating USDT supply, according to Token Terminal data. Tron continues to dominate stablecoin activity, with USDT on Tron roughly 20 times larger than USDC on Base. Tron (TRX) was trading at 0.29, down by 0.46% in 24 hours.
Tether (USDT) was trading at $0.99, flat over the day. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Tether remained in ‘bullish’ territory, accompanied by ‘high’ levels of chatter over the past day.
Past Tether Freezes
Tether has not disclosed why the addresses were frozen. However, past freezes have aligned with the US civil forfeiture. For instance, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) reported a civil forfeiture complaint against $225 million in cryptocurrency fraud tied to a “cryptocurrency confidence scam” in June last year. The DOJ also described it as the “largest ever seizure of funds” related to crypto scams.
Tether also published updates describing cooperation with US authorities, in freezing and reissuing USDT linked to hacking groups, pig butchering scams, and sanction-related cases. This includes a July 2025 announcement involving a $1.6 million USDT connected to a Buy Cash Money and Money Transfer Company, an international money laundering business.
Most recently, the stablecoin issuer announced a partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to fight crime, illicit drugs, transnational organized crime, terrorism, and corruption in Africa.
Read also: Three Wallets, 28 Seconds, And A 77% Crash: What Happened To This AI-Linked Crypto Token Built On Solana?
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