History of account freezing of USDt by Tether

Tether froze USD 8.2 million in USDt on the Ethereum network in October 2022. At that time, the stablecoin issuer did not provide a reason for the action and had frozen 215 USDt addresses on Ethereum that year.

The total amount of USDt blacklisted by the company in 2022 amounted to over USD 360 million.

In October 2023, the stablecoin issuer froze approximately USD 873,000 in USDt allegedly linked to terrorist activities in Ukraine and Israel, raising the total amount of USDT frozen by the company to USD 835 million.

In November 2023, Tether cooperated in an investigation led by the United States Department of Justice into a Southeast Asian human trafficking syndicate.

As part of the investigation, Tether froze USD 225 million in stablecoins linked to the group, allegedly acquired through "pig butchering" scams.

This relationship-building scheme aims to establish lasting trust with a victim to steal their funds at a later date.

In April 2024, Tether also committed to freezing Venezuelan assets to enforce sanctions from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control against the South American country.

The threat came after reports emerged that the Venezuelan state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) used stablecoins to finance oil trading, circumventing U.S. sanctions.