Tether Freezes $13.4 Million in USDT Across 22 Addresses
According to on-chain monitoring firm MistTrack, Tether Holdings has recently frozen $13.4 million worth of USDT stored on 22 wallet addresses on the Ethereum and Tron networks. This move is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to combat suspicious transactions and comply with law enforcement requests.
The freeze operation, which targeted addresses on both the Ethereum and Tron networks, is the latest in a series of similar actions taken by Tether. The company has been working closely with law enforcement agencies and international bodies to identify and block funds linked to sanctioned companies, terrorist financing, and fraud schemes.
Reasons Behind the Freeze
Although Tether has not officially disclosed the reasons behind the freeze, it is likely that the company received requests from law enforcement agencies to block the addresses due to suspected links to illicit activities. Tether regularly monitors blockchain activity for connections to sanctioned companies, darknet markets, and mixing services like Tornado Cash, and preemptively freezes wallets to avoid violating international financial laws.
In the past, Tether has frozen funds to comply with global sanctions and anti-money laundering obligations. For instance, in June 2025, the company froze more than $12.3 million worth of funds stored on the Tron network, and in April 2025, it froze around 28.67 million USDT at 13 addresses.
One of the company’s largest freeze operations took place in March this year when it froze $28 million worth of USDT on the Russian crypto exchange Garantex. However, even after the freeze, blockchain analytics firm Global Ledger found that the exchange still had $15 million in active reserves.
Lawsuit Against Tether
Tether’s methods of freezing funds have not gone unchallenged. Recently, Texas-based Riverstone Consulting filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing it of unlawfully freezing $44.7 million worth of USDT. The alleged incident occurred in April 2025, when Tether froze funds in eight Riverstone wallets at the request of Bulgarian police.
Riverstone claims that Tether’s actions circumvented the official steps required under the Bulgarian International Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, which stipulates that all information sharing should occur through certain central authorities and diplomatic channels. The company argues that it missed out on significant investment opportunities due to Tether’s actions.
According to its September 15 press release, Tether said it has worked with more than 290 law enforcement agencies in 59 countries to freeze more than $3.2 billion worth of USDT related to criminal activity. Last year, the company blocked up to 3,660 wallets.
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