Tether says it maintains a “zero tolerance” policy on using USDT for illicit purposes.
The company has frozen, according to its figures, $4.4 billion in USDT.
Tether, the issuing company of the USDT stablecoin, once again demonstrated its centralized spirit. The company announced, this Thursday, April 23, the freezing of 344 million dollars expressed in that digital currency that were deposited in two specific addresses that operated on the Tron network.
This measure was executed in coordination with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Justice and various law enforcement agencies of the United States.
The main objective of the action was to prevent the movement of funds linked to criminal networks and the evasion of international sanctions.
The trigger for this operation was the identification of illicit conduct after an exchange of detailed information by the US authorities. According to the company’s official report, The blocked addresses had direct links to criminal organizations.
Tether pointed out that this procedure is part of its “zero tolerance” policy against organized crime, complying with the guidelines of the OFAC list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN).
The company highlighted that, unlike cash, public networks offer a visible trail that allows investigators to mark addresses and stop assets before they are dispersed. This transparency is essential for the real-time monitoring strategy applied by the issuer of the most valued stablecoin on the market.
This action is not an isolated event, but rather adds to a history of recent interventions. On January 12, 2026, the issuer had already carried out one of its most significant freezes on the Tron network, blocking more than 182 million dollars distributed in five wallets, as reported by CriptoNoticias.
At that time, the individual amounts ranged between 12 million and 50 million dollars, also responding to formal requests from security agencies within the framework of an ongoing investigation.
The magnitude of the cooperation between Tether and state agencies is considerable. Currently, the firm collaborates with more than 340 law enforcement agencies in 65 countries and has provided support in more than 2,300 global cases.
Historically, These actions have led to the freezing of more than 4.4 billion USDTaccording to the company’s own data. Of that figure, approximately $2.1 billion is directly related to requests from US authorities, including previous cases of large-scale fraud.
The amount is higher than what Circle, the broadcaster of USDT’s main competitor, the USDC stablecoin, has frozen. CriptoNoticias reported that, from 2023 to 2025, that company only froze USD 109 million expressed in that digital currency.
Although these actions are presented as a tool to combat crime, the event reactivates the debate about the nature of USDT. This digital asset, unlike bitcoin (BTC), proves to be a confiscable and centralized currency, subject to the will of an issuer who can block funds at the request of a government.
While BTC is founded on censorship resistance, digital assets issued by private companies, such as Tether, operate under a control model that allows direct intervention over users’ holdings.
This last action reaffirms the trend of technical cooperation between issuers of digital currencies and states. The measure establishes a clear precedent on the ability to intervene in public networks when connections with sanctioned entities are identified, marking a definitive distance between the use of centralized assets and the autonomy offered by decentralized protocols such as Bitcoin.