In an aggressive effort against cybercrime, Tether has frozen at least 1,850 wallets involved in illegal activities, demonstrating its iron grip and influence over the stablecoin market.
In its fight against financial fraud, Tether worked with 180 institutions in 45 countries to freeze wallets and recover more than $1.86 billion in assets during the operation.
Tether is working to build trust in the crypto and financial industries and has proactively highlighted its commitment to complying with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) laws. Apart from compliance efforts, Tether also supports law enforcement agencies around the world, helping recover funds associated with cybercrime operations such as the North Korea-based hacker group Lazarus Group. It claims to have worked with government agencies in several high-profile cases, including: .
Tether says its main competitor Circle (which issues USDC) will only freeze wallets if it complies with a judicial order. Nevertheless, stablecoin providers claim that by cooperating with law enforcement, wallets will be frozen if necessary.
Tether’s statement said that if Circle had frozen wallets in the same way it did on the Ethereum blockchain, it could have prevented $219 million in USDC from being transferred from wallets associated with the fraud. It’s supposed to be. Tether said $96 million of the $219 million was related to the August 2021 Poly Network hack. Additionally, the hackers said they “timely froze the stolen USDT” and returned the stolen money.
Earlier this month, Tether announced that it would collaborate with TRON and blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs to form a financial crimes unit. Tron founder Justin Sun said at X that the partnership aims to “use blockchain technology to make the world a better place and send a clear message that illegal activity is not welcome in our industry.” He said that he is doing so. However, Sun remains indicted by the US SEC on multiple counts of violating the anti-fraud provisions of securities laws.
UK High Court declares Tether’s USDT legal property
In other Tether news, the property status of Tether’s USDT stablecoin was recently decided by the UK High Court, recognizing USDT as a type of property. Deputy Judge Fernhill’s judgment made clear that Tether, like any traceable asset, is entitled to property rights under English law and is vulnerable to trust claims. This ruling is consistent with previous legal interpretations that treat digital currencies as property.
The judge also cited a 2019 ruling from the same court that upheld the definition of virtual currencies as property, but the case never went to trial. This finding is consistent with the Law Commission of England and Wales’ 2023 report, which also classified digital assets as property.
