Tether Freezes Blacklisted $160M USDT On Ethereum

Stablecoin issuer Tether USDT/USD said it had frozen $160 million worth of USDT from three blacklisted addresses.

What Happened: The stablecoin issuer froze the funds upon a request from law enforcement, according to a report from CoinDesk.

The three blacklisted Ethereum ETH/USD wallet addresses will no longer be able to move funds across the blockchain.

"Today, Tether has frozen three addresses on the Ethereum blockchain containing $160m USDT upon a request from law enforcement. At the moment we are unable to disclose any further details,” a Tether spokesperson wrote in an email to CoinDesk.

Since 2017, Tether has reportedly frozen 563 addresses on the Ethereum blockchain.

Last month, data from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis revealed that cryptocurrency scammers had made $7.7 billion from crypto-related crimes over the course of 2021 alone.

The firm reported that activity from crypto scams surged by 81% last year compared to 2020, mostly due to the emergence of “rug pulls” such as the Squid Game token scam.

It's difficult to ascertain the identity of the users behind the wallets associated with crypto scams given the anonymity of crypto transactions. However, converting that stolen crypto back into fiat currency becomes considerably harder when stablecoin issuers are able to freeze funds from addresses that have been blacklisted.