{"id":94810,"date":"2026-02-28T17:12:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T14:12:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=94810"},"modified":"2026-02-28T17:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T14:15:17","slug":"tether-freezes-4-2-billion-in-illicit-funds-to-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/tether-freezes-4-2-billion-in-illicit-funds-to-date\/","title":{"rendered":"Tether Freezes $4.2 Billion in Illicit Funds to Date"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tether, the issuer of <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-tether-usdt\">USDT<\/a>, has collaborated with law enforcement agencies to freeze assets linked to illegal activities, amounting to approximately $4.2 billion.<\/p>\n<p>The firm <a href=\"https:\/\/tether.io\/news\/tether-acknowledged-by-doj-for-support-in-61-million-seizure-linked-to-pig-butchering-fraud\/\">announced<\/a> this following recognition from the U.S. Department of Justice for its assistance in dismantling a &#8220;pig butchering&#8221; scam. During an operation in North Carolina, authorities seized nearly $61 million from fraudsters.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThis step underscores Tether&#8217;s commitment to leading the digital asset industry by complying with all legal requirements and acting transparently, aiding law enforcement worldwide in preventing crypto-related crimes,\u201d the Tether statement read.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>According to the analytics firm Elliptic, by the end of 2025, stablecoin issuers, primarily Tether and <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-are-stablecoins\">Circle<\/a>, had blacklisted approximately 5,700 wallets holding around $2.5 billion. About three-quarters of these addresses contained USDT at the time of freezing.<\/p>\n<p>In February, the coin issuer assisted in the seizure of digital <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/tether-freezes-544-million-in-illicit-funds-at-turkeys-request\">assets worth $544 million<\/a> at the request of U.S. authorities.<\/p>\n<p>Tether clarified that it has directly interacted with more than 310 agencies from 64 countries over time.<\/p>\n<p>The company highlighted several instances of assisting law enforcement in 2025, including:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>the freezing and reissuing of 1.6 million USDT linked to terrorism financing in Gaza, at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice;<\/li>\n<li>participation in blocking $6.2 million in assets in a cross-border money laundering scheme through Klever Wallet, in collaboration with Brazilian authorities;<\/li>\n<li>the confiscation by government agents in Oklahoma City of approximately $225 million from operators of the &#8220;pig butchering&#8221; scheme;<\/li>\n<li>the seizure by the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) of $23 million from the sanctioned exchange Garantex;<\/li>\n<li>the arrest by Thai police and the USSS of approximately $12 million obtained through a transnational fraud network.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The market capitalization of USDT stands at about $183.7 billion. Tether&#8217;s flagship token dominates the &#8220;stablecoin&#8221; segment, which totals $311.5 billion.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"314\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-e0105fcf6499c11d-7502275872932081-1024x314.jpeg\" alt=\"image\" class=\"wp-image-275982\" srcset=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-e0105fcf6499c11d-7502275872932081-1024x314.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-e0105fcf6499c11d-7502275872932081-300x92.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-e0105fcf6499c11d-7502275872932081-768x236.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-e0105fcf6499c11d-7502275872932081.jpeg 1268w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coingecko.com\/en\/categories\/stablecoins\">CoinGecko<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The market supply of its main competitor, USDC, slightly exceeds $75.2 billion. However, in 2025, Circle&#8217;s coin <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/usdc-surpasses-usdt-in-defi-usage-activity\">surpassed<\/a> USDT in terms of transferred value \u2014 $17.3 trillion compared to $12.9 trillion.<\/p>\n<p>In January 2026, the total value of stablecoin transactions soared to <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/stablecoin-transfers-surpass-10-5-trillion\">a record $10.5 trillion<\/a>. USDC accounted for $8.3 trillion, while USDT accounted for $1.7 trillion.<\/p>\n<p>As reported, Tether&#8217;s net profit <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/tethers-annual-profit-surpasses-10-billion\">exceeded $10 billion<\/a> last year. The company accumulated a reserve of <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/tethers-gold-reserves-reach-148-tonnes-says-jefferies\">148 tonnes of physical gold<\/a>, according to Jefferies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tether, the issuer of USDT, has collaborated with law enforcement agencies to freeze assets linked to illegal activities, amounting to approximately $4.2 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"Tether has frozen $4.2 billion in illicit funds to date.","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1444,807,1245],"class_list":["post-94810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-law-enforcement","tag-stablecoins","tag-tether-usdt"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"252","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"Tether has frozen $4.2 billion in illicit funds to date.","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94812,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94810\/revisions\/94812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}