Tether has frozen approximately $182 million in its issued stablecoin USDT. The freeze, conducted on January 11, affected five addresses on the Tron blockchain, which held between $12 million and $50 million, according to Whale Alert.
"Tether froze the assets in connection with an ongoing investigation following an official request from law enforcement agencies," a Tether representative told The Block. He clarified that the investigation has been ongoing for several months. No further details were disclosed by the company.
The freeze of over $180 million is one of the largest single freezes of funds in the Tron network that has become known in recent months, the publication notes. Tron is one of the most popular blockchains for transferring funds in USDT. According to the issuer's data as of January 12, the total market capitalization of USDT is $186 billion, of which $82.5 billion is issued on the Tron network.
Tether emphasized that the company "has a long-standing practice of supporting legitimate investigations by freezing addresses associated with illegal activity or sanctions violations, in response to valid requests." Back in late 2023, Tether decided to block tokens on crypto addresses listed on the sanctions list of the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
According to information on Tether's website, the company has blocked over $3 billion in USDT as part of cooperation with 310 agencies from 62 countries. In total, Tether has voluntarily frozen 3,440 wallets, of which 2,007 were cases of cooperation with U.S. law enforcement agencies. 470 addresses with 95 million USDT were blocked by Tether "to assist law enforcement agencies in Israel and Ukraine," the company highlights.
2.5 billion rubles in USDT tokens were frozen by Tether from the Russian crypto exchange Garantex in March 2025. The freeze was conducted as part of a special operation by the U.S. Secret Service and law enforcement agencies from a number of European Union countries.
What to expect from the crypto market. How the Trump-Fed conflict will affect prices
Anonymous cryptocurrency Monero reached a new all-time high. Reasons for the growth
In Buryatia, a 'mining truck' stole electricity worth 3 million rubles.
