Tether froze $1.5 billion after Binance hack

Tether froze more than $1.5 billion in USDT within 30 minutes of the Oct. 29 Binance hack, restricting access to funds linked to North Korean hackers. The FBI later attributed the $6.3 billion theft to North Korea’s TraderTraitor group.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said on Nov. 2 that the company acted quickly to limit access to the stolen assets and prevent further losses. By Oct. 31, Tether had helped U.S. authorities freeze approximately $1.6 billion in USDT across 3,590 wallets.

Ardoino said the response demonstrated the risks for criminals using USDT, a cryptocurrency designed to maintain a value of about $1. Tether works with more than 360 law enforcement agencies in 73 countries to investigate illicit transactions.

The company said its enforcement efforts have led to more than $7 billion in secondary-market freezes and the return of about $1.2 billion to victims and law enforcement agencies.

Tether also reported freezes linked to other investigations. Iran-related freezes included $344 million in April and another $130 million in July, bringing the total linked to Iran this year to nearly $550 million. The company also blocked approximately $23 million associated with sanctioned Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex.

On Nov. 2, Tether froze an additional $4.5 million connected to a security incident involving Brazil-based Mercado Bitcoin. Separately, the company reported $1.5 billion in operating profit for the third quarter. Its reserve buffer nearly doubled to $7.95 billion.