Tether, Tron, and TRM Labs Help Freeze $126 Million in Crime

A crime-fighting coalition formed by prominent crypto companies has frozen more than $100 million in assets to purge criminals from their networks.

Co-led by Tether, Tron and TRM Labs, the T3 Financial Crimes Unit works directly with law enforcement around the world to “identify and disrupt criminal networks.” said In a statement Thursday. Their purpose is to prevent exploitation by bad actors Stablecoins like Tetherwhich criminals agreed to launder their ill-gotten gains.

“T3 FCU’s ability to work closely with law enforcement agencies around the world to effectively prevent cybercriminals from using USDT on TRON is a proof of concept public-private partnership,” said Chris Janczewski, Head of Global Investigations at TRM Labs.

The T3 Financial Crimes Unit has analyzed millions of transactions on five continents since last August, monitoring a total of more than $3 billion. In total, the group said it worked with local law enforcement to freeze $126 million in assets.

Millions of people around the world use stablecoins, which are backed by and pegged to the value of another asset such as the US dollar, to hedge inflation, send remittances and make other peer-to-peer transfers. However, bad actors also like tokens.

Criminals made an estimated $40 billion in illegal stablecoin transactions between 2022 and 2023. report presents Chainalysis from blockchain data firm. At the same time, law enforcement officials and NGOs are increasingly noting the links between stablecoin transactions and financial fraud such as money laundering and sanctions evasion.

United Nations report It claimed that USDT transactions enabled by Tron’s TRC-20 protocol, announced in 2024, are a “preferable choice” for bad actors. Justin Sun is the founder of Tron rejected The accusations emphasize that his team is working to eliminate crime on the blockchain.

Meanwhile, US prosecutors are investigating Tether for violating sanctions and anti-money laundering regulations. The Wall Street Journal saidBy referring to informed sources. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino several times denied that there was no truth in the accusations.

Edited by Andrew Hayward