Tether Freezes $5.2 Million USDT
Tether, the issuer of the stablecoin USDT, has recently frozen a sum of $5.2 million USDT that is connected to prevalent “phishing scams”. This amount was found in 12 suspicious Ethereum wallets that have previously been used for money laundering in phishing scams. Criminals often employ phishing emails or fake websites to deceive victims into providing personal and account information, and then transfer the funds to different accounts to make them harder to trace.
In fact, Tether has been actively combating criminal money flows. Since its establishment, Tether has frozen around $1.3 billion suspicious assets related to hacking attacks, fraud, and even terrorism financing, with approximately $1.6 million linked to terrorist attacks.
Further reading:
Not Just a Leading Stablecoin! Tether Transforms into “Financial Ecosystem Builder”, Launches Four Major Divisions: Data, Finance, Energy, and Education
Tether Actively Collaborates with Law Enforcement Agencies to Strictly Monitor Illegal Wallets and Money Flows
Tether maintains strict monitoring of suspicious USDT addresses and often takes actions to blacklist them. For instance, in January 2022, the company blocked three Ethereum USDT addresses holding over $150 million in value. Then, in October 2022, Tether froze Ethereum USDT worth $8.2 million and added 215 Ethereum addresses to the blacklist.
Tether’s response to handling money flows related to terrorist attacks has also been swift, including $817,000 USDT connected to actions involving Ukraine or Israel in October 2023. In November 2023, $225 million USDT resulting from romance scams was frozen.
In March 2024, Tether collaborated with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to discover $1.4 million USDT in value from a fraud network related to technical support.
Earlier this year, a United Nations report stated that due to its ease of transfer and widespread use, USDT is the preferred cryptocurrency for money laundering, sparking speculation about a possible investigation by the U.S. government. Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, the issuer of XRP, recently suggested on the podcast “World Class” that the U.S. government is likely to investigate Tether, despite Tether playing a crucial role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
In response, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino retorted in a post, calling Garlinghouse an ignorant CEO leading a company under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Ardoino pointed out that Garlinghouse is spreading fear about USDT.
In his post, Ardoino emphasized that USDT is the most widely used stablecoin in the world, with hundreds of millions of users in emerging markets and developing countries. He stressed the company’s use of blockchain technology for transparency and its collaboration with global law enforcement agencies to ensure security. To date, Tether has partnered with 24 law enforcement organizations and has received 198 wallet freeze requests from authorities in the past year.
Source:
CoinTelegraph
,
CoinMarketCap