Tether, issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, USDt, has frozen over $12.3 million of digital assets on the Tron Network, continuing its clampdown on illicit activity in the crypto space.
Tether froze the USDt (USDT) at 9:15 am UTC Sunday on Tron, blockchain data from Tronscan showed.
While Tether has not issued a public statement, the freeze may stem from concerns over potential sanctions violations or Anti-Money Laundering (AML) risks.
“Tether enforces a strict wallet-freezing policy to combat money laundering, nuclear proliferation and terrorist financing and is also aligned with the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List,” Tether wrote in a March 7 blog post.
The policy is aligned with the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list.
Cointelegraph reached out to Tether for comment on the fund freeze but had not received a response by publication time.
Related: Chinese trader laundered more than $17M for Lazarus Group in 25 hacks
Tether’s asset-freezing abilities received renewed interest on March 6 when it froze $27 million in USDT on the Garantex crypto exchange.
That same day, the exchange halted operations, claiming that “Tether has entered the war against the Russian crypto market and blocked our wallets worth more than 2.5 billion rubles [$27 million].”
In April 2022, OFAC became the first entity to place sanctions on Garantex, claiming that the exchange disregarded AML and other regulatory requirements.
Despite the previous freeze, blockchain analytics firm Global Ledger identified more than $15 million in active reserves tied to Garantex on June 5, Cointelegraph reported.
Related: Top 100 DeFi Hacks: Offchain attack vectors account for 57% of losses
Lazarus-linked funds under scrutiny
While some decentralization advocates have criticized Tether’s asset-freezing ability, the mechanism has prevented hundreds of millions of dollars worth 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 worth of USDT in its first six months, Cointelegraph reported in January 2025.
The FCU was formed to assist law enforcement agencies worldwide in freezing illicit transactions.
The importance of these initiatives was highlighted by the North Korean state-backed Lazarus Group, which laundered over $200 million worth of stolen crypto between 2020 and 2023.
Lazarus is among the most notorious groups of crypto hackers, first emerging in 2009 and stealing over $3 billion in crypto assets in the six years leading up to 2023.
Over $374,000 worth of stolen funds were blacklisted by Tether in November 2023, while three out of four stablecoin issuers have blacklisted an additional $3.4 million sitting in a cluster of addresses associated with Lazarus, according to ZachXBT.
Magazine: Lazarus Group’s favorite exploit revealed — Crypto hacks analysis
