Catenaa, Tuesday, January 20, 2026-Tether froze more than $182 million in USDT across five Tron addresses on Jan. 11, according to onchain data and Whale Alert reporting.
Individual wallet balances ranged from roughly $12 million to $50 million, marking one of the largest single-day freezes on Tron in recent months, as per another report.
The stablecoin issuer said the action followed a formal request from law enforcement agencies conducting a multi-month investigation.
Tether routinely cooperates with authorities globally, freezing addresses linked to illicit activity or sanctions violations under its voluntary and regulatory compliance policies.
Tether formalized a voluntary wallet-freezing policy in December 2023 to comply with the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control Specially Designated Nationals list.
Since then, the company has blocked more than $3 billion worth of USDT for over 310 agencies across 62 jurisdictions.
As of July 2025, Tether had frozen roughly $1.14 billion in over 2,380 wallets at the request of US authorities, including the FBI and Secret Service.
The scale of enforcement significantly exceeds competitors. Analytics firm AMLBot reported that Tether has frozen about 30 times more USDT than Circle has USDC since 2023.
USDT remains the dominant stablecoin, with $187 billion in circulation, accounting for 64% of the $292 billion stablecoin market, while USDC has nearly $75 billion.
Stablecoins are increasingly linked to illicit activity, comprising an estimated 84% of all illicit crypto transaction volume in 2025, totaling at least $154 billion, according to Chainalysis.
Tether’s coordinated freezes highlight its ongoing role in law enforcement compliance while underlining the centralized oversight inherent in its operations.
