Half A Billion In USDT Frozen: Tether's Compliance Push Picks Up Speed

Tether has frozen more than $514 million in USDT (usdt) across two major blockchains over the past 30 days, new onchain data shows.

Tron Dominates Freezes

The figure comes from BlockSec's USDT Freeze Tracker, with details first reported by Cointelegraph on Friday. The tracker counted 370 blacklisted addresses during the 30-day window, including 328 on the Tron network and 42 on Ethereum (eth).

The dollar split is even more uneven. Tron accounted for roughly $505.9 million in frozen funds, while Ethereum held only about $8.73 million.

Tron's dominance reflects how the chain has become the main venue for high-volume USDT transfers, especially across emerging markets where low fees drive adoption.

Also Read: Chainlink Whales Quietly Pocket 32.9M LINK In 30 Days, Hitting All-Time High

Compliance Pace Quickens

Analysts say the pace of action puts Tether on track to surpass last year's totals well before December.

BlockSec's 2025 review found the issuer blacklisted 4,163 unique addresses across both chains, freezing $1.26 billion in USDT. More than half of those funds, around $698 million, were later destroyed, and only 3.6% of flagged addresses were ever removed from the blacklist.

A separate 2023 to 2025 study estimated Tether immobilized roughly $3.3 billion across 7,268 addresses over three years, far ahead of rival Circle.

Onchain investigator ZachXBT has tied part of the recent activity to the DSJ Exchange and BG Wealth Sharing collapse, an alleged Ponzi scheme that took more than $150 million from users.

Recent Freeze History

This year alone has already produced several headline-grabbing actions. In February, Tether confirmed it had frozen about $4.2 billion in tokens over three years tied to illicit activity, with $3.5 billion of that locked since 2023.

In April, the company worked with the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control to freeze more than $344 million in USDT across two Tron wallets allegedly linked to sanctions evasion involving Iran. A separate February operation helped seize over $61 million tied to so-called pig butchering scams.

Alexey Bondarev

Alexey Bondarev is the Head of Content at Yellow.com, having reported on crypto for the last 10 years. He specializes in in-depth Research and Learn pieces, with a focus on analytical reporting, industry context, and the bigger forces shaping crypto, from the AI era and security technologies to fintech innovation. He believes that everything digital will imminently overcome everything analogue and is working hard to make that come true.