Tether has blacklisted three Ethereum addresses holding more than $160 million in USDT stablecoins.
Transfers from these wallets are now blocked.
“Today, at the request of law enforcement, Tether froze three Ethereum addresses on the Ethereum blockchain containing $160 million. At this time we cannot disclose any further details,” said the company.
The issuer first blocked an address in November 2017, when it announced a $30 million theft.
By July 2020, the number of blacklisted accounts reached 40. Since then the scale of asset freezes has grown markedly — at the time of writing the figure stands at 563 addresses.
The company has said it regularly cooperates with law enforcement.
Thanks to its account-blocking feature, Tether has the ability reimburse victims of hacks for stolen funds.
The issuer also assists users in recover USDT sent to incorrect smart-contract addresses. It burns the blocked assets and reissues the stablecoins.
In late December 2021, Tether added an Ethereum address with assets worth more than $1 million to its blacklist.