Experts quantify share of high-risk USDT operations on Tron’s OTC market

Over two years, OTC-wallets on the Tron network received more than 3.4 billion USDT, of which 54.2% were linked to high-risk operations. The findings were disclosed by analytics firm Bitrace.

According to their calculations:

• 20.1% of the total amount was linked to various crypto scams and other grey schemes;
• 19.4% — money laundering;
• 14.7% — online gambling.

Bitrace added that obtaining coins from these addresses is likely to taint the address and increase the risk of additional AML checks by centralized-exchange operators and law-enforcement authorities.

Earlier, Bitrace experts disclosed a case of using cryptocurrency for online gambling. During the investigation they identified an OTC wallet that transferred a total of 28.8 million USDT from September 25, 2022 to October 15, 2023.

Meanwhile, 76 transactions totaling more than 2.43 million USDT were linked to money laundering. It also interacted repeatedly with coins obtained from gambling platforms.

Subsequently, the assets ended up on various centralized exchanges, notably Bybit, OKX and Binance.

A U.S. court found this address involved in money laundering. The assets were frozen and seized, analysts said.

As reported in July, Bitrace said that criminal syndicates launder cryptocurrency obtained through fraud via gambling platforms.

According to the company, in 2022 under these schemes more than $7.6 billion in USDT were transferred to hot wallets of exchanges. A substantial portion of the funds originated from addresses involved in fraud and phishing.