Tether freezes $344M in USDT on Tron wallets

Tether confirmed it froze more than $344 million in USDT held across two Tron addresses, blocking roughly $213 million in one wallet and about $131 million in the other. The addresses appear on Tron explorers as TNiq9…QZH81 and TTiDL…pjSr9.

Blockchain observers reported the two addresses were blacklisted on April 23. Tether made the freeze public in a notice issued on Thursday but did not disclose when the wallets were first flagged to the company.

The company said the action followed information from U.S. authorities, including the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, and from U.S. law enforcement. Tether linked the freeze to intelligence connecting the funds to sanctions evasion, criminal networks or other illicit conduct.

Tether’s chief executive, Paolo Ardoino, wrote in the company statement, “USDT is not a safe haven for illicit activity,” and added that the issuer moves quickly when it identifies credible links to sanctioned entities or criminal actors.

Tether described the freeze as one of the largest in the company’s history by dollar value. The firm noted it has expanded public disclosures of enforcement actions since late 2023 and provided aggregate figures to illustrate its compliance work.

According to the company, Tether now works with more than 340 law enforcement agencies across 65 countries, has supported over 2,300 cases worldwide and has frozen more than $4.4 billion in assets overall, including over $2.1 billion tied to U.S. authorities.

The company previously blocked about $225 million in November 2023 in a case linked to a Southeast Asia human-trafficking and “pig butchering” investigation, and roughly $182 million in January across five Tron wallets in another law-enforcement-linked action. Tether did not say whether the latest frozen wallets are connected to those earlier cases.

Before the freezes, the two Tron addresses were publicly visible on blockchain explorers, showing the USDT balances now disabled for movement. Tether’s token protocol allows the issuer to block redemption of tokens it issues when supplied with credible intelligence or legal direction. The company declined to identify the specific investigation, the jurisdictions leading the inquiry or whether the frozen funds belong to individuals, organizations or exchanges.