Tether Freezes USDT Holdings Linked to Tron Wallets

• Tether froze $182M USDT across five Tron wallets in a single-day, coordinated enforcement action.
• Wallet freezes followed law enforcement requests under Tether’s post-2023 compliance framework.
• USDT freezes since 2023 far exceeding rivals, reflecting its dominant share of the stablecoin market.

Tether has frozen more than $182 million in USDT held across five wallet addresses on the Tron blockchain, according to on-chain data and disclosures tracked by Whale Alert. The action involved multiple addresses with balances ranging from roughly $12 million to $50 million, marking one of the larger coordinated wallet freezes on Tron in recent months.

Blockchain data shows that the restrictions were applied within the same day, suggesting a coordinated enforcement action rather than isolated freezes. The affected wallets were blacklisted at the protocol level, preventing further movement of the USDT tokens held at those addresses.

A Tether spokesperson noted that the freezes were linked to an ongoing investigation and followed a formal request from law enforcement authorities. According to the statement, the relevant agency had been working on the case for several months before the application of the restrictions. Tether stated that it routinely cooperates with law enforcement agencies globally and freezes addresses associated with illicit activity or sanctions violations upon receipt of valid requests.

Policy Framework Behind The Freezes

The Jan. 11 actions align with Tether’s voluntary wallet-freezing policy, which the company formally introduced in December 2023. That policy was designed to support compliance with the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control Specially Designated Nationals list. Under Tether’s terms of service, the issuer states that it may freeze addresses or share user information when ordered to do so, or voluntarily if deemed reasonable and necessary.

This framework has led to a large increase in enforcement activity over time. Information shared on Tether’s website indicates that the company has frozen more than $3 billion in USDT to support law enforcement efforts, collaborating with over 310 agencies across 62 jurisdictions worldwide.

Comparison With Other Stablecoin Issuers

As of July 2025, Tether reported that it had assisted U.S. agencies, including the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, in freezing more than 2,380 wallets holding about $1.14 billion in USDT. Additional freezes have also been coordinated with authorities outside the United States.

The scale of these actions exceeds that of other major stablecoin issuers. A December 2025 report from analytics firm AMLBot found that the total value of USDT frozen by Tether since 2023 was roughly 30 times higher than the $109 million in USDC frozen by Circle over the same period.

USDT remains the largest stablecoin by supply, with a circulation of more than $187 billion, representing approximately 64% of the total $292 billion stablecoin market. USDC, the second-largest stablecoin, has a supply of nearly $75 billion.

Related: Tether Partners With UNODC to Fight Digital Crime and Protect African Communities