Stablecoin issuer Tether has reportedly frozen roughly $4.2 billion worth of its USDt tokens connected to suspected criminal activity over the past three years.
Most of the blocked funds were restricted since 2023, as regulators and law enforcement agencies intensified scrutiny of crypto-related fraud and sanctions evasion, the El Salvador-based firm reportedly told Reuters.
Tether’s dollar-pegged USDt token is the largest stablecoin in circulation, with more than $180 billion outstanding, up sharply from about $70 billion three years ago. Tether can freeze tokens directly on the blockchain by blacklisting wallet addresses when requested by authorities.
According to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, by late 2025, stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle had blacklisted around 5,700 wallets holding about $2.5 billion, with roughly three-quarters of the addresses containing USDt when they were frozen.
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