Tether Freezes $344M in USDT on Two Tron Wallets

Tether froze $344 million in USDT held across two Tron blockchain addresses after U.S. authorities flagged the funds for alleged sanctions evasion and other illicit activity. The company carried out the action in coordination with the Office of Foreign Assets Control and U.S. law enforcement.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield identified the frozen addresses on Tron as TNiq9…QZH81 and TTiDL…pjSr9, holding about $213 million and $131 million respectively. Tether did not immediately confirm the wallet identifiers.

Tether’s compliance team said the restrictions followed information linking the wallets to sanctioned entities, criminal networks or other illicit activity. The firm implemented the freeze after direct coordination with OFAC and U.S. law enforcement agencies.

In a statement, Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s chief executive, wrote, “USDT is not a safe haven for illicit activity.” He added that the company uses blockchain transparency, real-time monitoring and direct coordination with law enforcement to prevent funds from moving when credible links to illicit actors are found.

Tether said its compliance operations now involve partnerships with more than 340 law enforcement agencies across 65 countries and that it has supported over 2,300 cases worldwide. The issuer reported it has frozen more than $4.4 billion in assets overall, including about $2.1 billion linked to U.S. authorities.

Large-scale freezes by Tether have occurred before. In November 2023 the company froze about $225 million in USDT tied to an investigation of a Southeast Asia human-trafficking and fraud scheme. In January 2026 Tether froze roughly $182 million across five Tron wallets in another coordinated enforcement action. Those actions usually involve OFAC, the Treasury Department office that administers and enforces U.S. sanctions.

The freeze follows two large decentralized finance exploits this year that investigators have linked to North Korean-affiliated hackers: a $285 million attack on Drift Protocol and a $292 million exploit of Kelp DAO. Circle, the issuer of USDC, has said it can freeze funds only when required by law enforcement or court orders; Circle’s chief strategy officer, Dante Disparte, wrote that freezes occur when the law requires action.

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Circle related to the Drift funds. Drift announced plans to replace USDC holdings with USDT and said a recovery plan backed by Tether will provide $148 million to help reimburse affected users.