Tether-Led Criminal Unit Crosses $100 Million Milestone in Global Crypto Asset Seizures

On January 2, the T3 Financial Crime Unit (T3 FCU), a collaboration between Tether, Tron and TRM Labs, announced that it had reached “an important milestone in its fight against financial crime linked to cryptocurrencies”.

The unit, launched in August 2024, worked closely with global law enforcement to “successfully intervene in cases of money laundering, investment fraud, blackmail operations, financing of terrorism and other serious financial crimes,” it says.

Freezing criminal assets

“Working closely with authorities in all jurisdictions, Tether has been instrumental in freezing criminal assets and ensuring bad actors do not exploit stablecoins like USDT,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether.

“Criminals now have 100 million reasons to think twice before using TRON,” said Justin Sun, founder of the Tron network, who added:

“The T3 FCU’s rapid success in freezing criminal assets sends an unequivocal message: if you use USDT on TRON for criminal purposes, you will be arrested.”

T3 Financial Crime Unit Scores Law Enforcement Victory: $100 Million in Criminal Assets Frozen on Five Continents
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– Tether (@Tether_to) January 2, 2025

The T3 financial crime unit has already analyzed millions of transactions across five continents, monitoring more than $3 billion in volume, according to the announcement.

Chris Janczewski, head of global investigations at TRM Labs, said surpassing 100 million USDT in frozen assets is just the beginning.

“In 2025 and beyond, as more and more legal users enter the growing crypto ecosystem, it is more important than ever to ensure its security. T3 is dedicated to this mission.

Are Tether’s woes in the EU about to get worse?

Tether’s market capitalization has started to decline for the first time since late 2022, after falling USD 3 billion from its peak of around USD 140 billion in mid-December.

The drop in supply could be due to growing concerns in Europe following the activation of its restrictive Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulations, raising uncertainty over the status of USDT on the bloc’s exchanges .

The implementation of MiCA in Europe on December 30 has created an uncertain future for stablecoin issuers such as Tether, as the regulations are unclear whether USDT is compliant.

However, Ardoino dismissed the concerns as FUD earlier this week as the company added $700 million worth of Bitcoin to its treasury. “Don’t believe the FUD,” he said before adding, “Competitors are desperate to make you believe things that don’t exist.”