Tether, the company behind the USDT stablecoin, has frozen $13.4 million spread across 22 wallets on the Ethereum and Tron blockchains. The move adds to a growing list of similar enforcement actions by the company this year.
Blockchain tracking firm MistTrack reported that the largest share of the frozen funds, about $10.3 million, was held in an Ethereum wallet identified as 0xecbd8…. Another Tron address, TYzDebk…, contained roughly $1.4 million in USDT.
The latest freeze follows several others by Tether in recent months. The company froze over $12.3 million earlier in June. Similarly, in April, froze around 28.67 million USDT across 13 wallets. Earlier, in March, Tether froze $28 million on the Russian crypto exchange Garantex. Despite the freeze, blockchain analytics firm Global Ledger said Garantex still held $15 million in active funds.
In a statement issued on September 15, Tether said it has frozen more than $3.2 billion in USDT linked to criminal activities. The company noted it has worked with over 290 law enforcement agencies across 59 countries, resulting in the blocking of about 3,660 wallets over the past year.
Tether explained that wallet freezes are typically carried out at the request of authorities such as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), or international agencies. Wallets may be blocked if they are tied to fraud, terrorism financing, sanctioned entities, or other illegal markets. The company said these steps are part of its ongoing commitment to anti-money-laundering (AML) and sanctions compliance.
However, not all freezes have gone uncontested. A Texas-based firm, Riverstone Consulting, has sued Tether, with the claims the company wrongly froze $44.7 million in April, disrupting its business operations.
The lawsuit argues that Tether ignored international procedures under the Bulgarian International Judicial Assistance Treaty, which requires official government communication before taking such action.
