Tether freezes $5.2M in USDT related to phishing scams
Stablecoin issuer Tether on May 14 suspended the $5.2 million stablecoin Tether (USDT) linked to phishing scams. This USDT is stored in 12 Ethereum wallets labeled as “USDT Blocked Address”.
The chief security officer of chain analytics firm SlowMist said the addresses were being used to launder funds from phishing scams, without elaborating.
Tether, the world's largest steelcoin issuer, has blocked billions in assets linked to hacking, exploitation and fraud. Tether CEO Paolo Arduino told XPost that the company has frozen more than $1.3 billion since its inception, including an estimated $1.6 million related to terrorist financing.
In January 2022, Tether blacklisted three Ethereum addresses that held more than $150 million worth of USDT. In October 2022, Tether blocked 8.2 million USD on Ethereum and added 215 Ethereum-based USDT addresses to the blacklist.
In the year By the end of 2022, Tether had blocked more than $360 million in assets. In the year In October 2023, the stablecoin issuer suspended $817,000 in USDT linked to terrorist activity in Ukraine and Israel. A month later, it banned $225 million in USDT related to dating scams.
The stablecoin issuer has worked with 24 law enforcement agencies in over 40 countries. The firm has cooperated with 198 requests from law enforcement agencies to shut down wallets in the past 12 months and 339 in the past three years.
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In addition, Tether has proposed secondary market controls to stop activity related to persons authorized on the US Foreign Assets Control Specially Designated Nationals List. Countries where any company or individuals are controlled or owned are included in the list.
The use of decentralized ledger technology allows crypto companies to control funds on-chain, and the central feature of stablecoins allows issuers to freeze assets linked to illegal activities at the request of law enforcement agencies.
Cointelegraph reached out for comment on the banned addresses and which phishing scams they were linked to, but did not receive a response by press time.
Magazine: US law enforcement agencies are turning up the heat on crypto-related crimes.
