Tron announced today the creation of a Financial Crimes Unit “T3” that will attempt to combat illicit activity linked to the use of the stablecoin USDT on its network.
The anti-crime unit was created together with Tether, the issuing company of the stablecoin USDT, and the company specializing in fraud and financial crime prevention in the digital ecosystem, TRM Labs. Hence the expression “T3”, which refers to the collaboration between three entities (Tron, Tether and TRM Labs) and its initials.
This new surveillance body on-chain has like aim to strengthen security on the Tron network, focusing on the detection and prevention of illegal activities related to USDT on the blockchain. Among other tasks, this involves monitoring suspicious transactions, money laundering or other financial crimes related to cryptocurrencies.
In turn, with respect to this launch, it is express Tron network founder Justin Sun made clear his stance on mitigating illegal conduct within the blockchain.
“Tron was born with the belief that technology can be used for good and to empower people around the world. Illicit activity is not welcome in our industry.”
Justin Sun, founder of the Tron network.
August 2024 was a month of growth for the Tron network
The announcement of this new Unit coincides with a current growth in the use of stablecoins on the Tron network and other metrics on-chain.
Regarding the use of stablecoins, The total value of these stablecoins on the Tron network has been steadily increasing throughout 2024. This is seen more clearly in the following graph, provided by the analysis site on-chainCoin98 Analytics.
As of August 2024, the total market capitalization of the stablecoins in Tron was $60 billion, which represents an increase of $406 million compared to the previous month. The majority of this capitalization is in USDT, with a value of $58.5 billion.
For its part, HUSD, another stablecoinhad the largest percentage growth in a month, with a 60% increase in its capitalization.
In relation to other metrics, according to Coin98 Analytics, as of August 2024 Tron showed increases in rates and revenues by 38%, which meant a net profit of almost 40 million dollars, doubling the previous month.
Another metric that showed an increase was the transaction volume with TRX, Tron’s native cryptocurrency. This figure showed an increase of $8.5 billion compared to July 2024. In addition, in August 2024, Tron gained more than 7 million new active addresses.
Thus, this anti-crime unit is now activated due to the possibility that the growth in the use of stablecoins in Tron is accompanied by new illicit activity on the network.
In 2023, Tron hosted half of the illicit activity on-chain
The digital finance ecosystem being used for illegitimate activities is nothing new, and the Tron network is one of the blockchains where this occurs.
So much so that, in a report issued by the company TRM Labs in April 2024, it was determined that During 2023, Tron contained 45% of the total volume of illegal conduct recorded on its network in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Moreover, this index surpassed that of 2022, when Tron accounted for 41% of all illegal activity involving digital assets.
In 2023, according to TRM Labs, a total of 35 billion dollars were handled by those responsible for these illicit conducts.
On the other hand, this same report revealed the growing interest of terrorist groups in the use of USDT and noted that “among cryptocurrency addresses linked to terrorist financing campaigns, we saw a 125% increase in TRON addresses in 2023.”
Thus, the introduction of the new T3 Financial Crimes Unit could be linked to the growing activity with stablecoins on the network, as a way to combat the potential illegitimate use of USDT or other cryptoassets that could come with such an increase.