Tether freezes $182 million in USDT tied to five Tron addresses

Tether froze more than $182 million in USDT across five wallet addresses on the Tron blockchain on Jan. 11, according to onchain data and reporting from Whale Alert.

The freezes occurred within the same day, involving individual wallet balances ranging from roughly $12 million to $50 million. The coordinated action ranks among the larger single-day wallet restrictions disclosed on Tron in recent months.

"Tether has frozen assets in connection with an ongoing investigation, following a formal request from law enforcement authorities," a Tether spokesperson told The Block. "The relevant agency has been working on this case for several months. Tether routinely works with law enforcement agencies globally and has a long standing practice of supporting lawful investigations by freezing addresses linked to illicit activity or sanctions violations in response to valid requests."

The Jan. 11 blacklistings align with a voluntary wallet-freezing policy Tether formally initiated in December 2023 to comply with the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control Specially Designated Nationals list. In its terms of service, Tether states it may share user information or freeze addresses "when ordered to do so or on a voluntary basis if this appears reasonable and necessary to us."

This centralized oversight has seen the stablecoin giant block more than $3 billion worth of USDT to assist law enforcement globally, working with over 310 agencies across 62 jurisdictions, according to the information on its website.

As of July 2025, Tether said it had assisted in freezing more than 2,380 wallets holding about $1.14 billion in USDT for U.S. agencies, including the FBI and U.S. Secret Service, with additional freezes coordinated outside the United States.

The scale of Tether's enforcement activity significantly exceeds that of its nearest competitor. According to a December 2025 report from analytics firm AMLBot, the total value of USDT frozen by Tether since 2023 is roughly 30 times greater than the $109 million in USDC frozen by Circle over the same period.

Tether's USDT dominates the stablecoin landscape with over $187 billion in circulation, accounting for 64% of the total $292 billion market, according to The Block’s data dashboard. Rival stablecoin USDC has a total supply of nearly $75 billion.

Stablecoins now constitute the predominant medium for illicit cryptocurrency transactions. They accounted for 84% of all illicit crypto transaction volume in 2025, which totaled a lower-bound estimate of $154 billion, according to a recent Chainalysis report.

Update: Added comment from Tether