$514 Million in USDT Frozen as Tether Cracks Down on Compliance

Tether's efforts to improve compliance have accelerated in recent weeks, with over $514 million in USDT frozen across two major blockchains. According to BlockSec's USDT Freeze Tracker, this figure includes 370 blacklisted addresses, with the majority located on the Tron network.

The Tron dominance is due in part to its low fees, which have driven adoption among emerging markets. This has led to a surge in high-volume USDT transfers on the chain, resulting in $505.9 million of frozen funds.

Compared to last year's totals, Tether appears to be on track to surpass them well before December. In 2023, BlockSec found that the issuer blacklisted 4,163 unique addresses across both chains, freezing $1.26 billion in USDT. Of these, around $698 million were later destroyed.

The recent freeze activity has been tied to several high-profile events, including the collapse of the DSJ Exchange and BG Wealth Sharing, an alleged Ponzi scheme that lost users over $150 million.