Share this article
Sign Up
- Back to menuPrices
- Back to menuResearch
- Back to menu
- Back to menu
- Back to menu
- Back to menu
- Back to menuWebinars
Tether Freezes $225M Linked to Human Trafficking Syndicate Amid DOJ Investigation
The $225 million was related to the "pig butchering" scam.
Stablecoin issuer Tether has frozen $225 million worth of its own stablecoin following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) into an international human trafficking syndicate in Southeast Asia.
The investigation was ongoing for months and used blockchain analysis tools provided by Chainalysis. It marks the largest-ever freeze of a stablecoin, a press release said.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
On-chain data shows that Tether froze the $225 million across 37 wallets, with the majority of those tokens previously being transferred to OKX, a crypto exchange that also took part in the investigation.
❄ ❄ ❄ ❄ An address with a balance of 87,464,642 #USDT (87,511,217 USD) has just been frozen!https://t.co/XOvIpuh3PT
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) November 20, 2023
The crime syndicate is related to the "pig butchering" scam, which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said cost U.S. citizens $3.3 billion last year.
The frozen tokens were being held in self-custodied wallets and did not belong to Tether customers, the press release added.
"Through proactive engagement with global law enforcement agencies and our commitment to transparency, Tether aims to set a new standard for safety within the crypto space,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether.
Tether also froze 32 crypto addresses linked to terrorism and warfare in Ukraine and Israel last month.
UPDATE (Nov. 20, 15:15 UTC): Adds paragraph linking to on-chain data.
Oliver Knight
Oliver Knight is the co-leader of CoinDesk data tokens and data team. Before joining CoinDesk in 2022 Oliver spent three years as the chief reporter at Coin Rivet. He first started investing in bitcoin in 2013 and spent a period of his career working at a market making firm in the UK. He does not currently have any crypto holdings.
More For You
Multisig Failures Dominate as $2B Is Lost in Web3 Hacks in the First Half
A wave of multisig-related hacks and operational misconfiguration led to catastrophic losses in the first half of 2025.
What to know:
- Over $2 billion was lost to Web3 hacks in the first half of the year, with the first quarter alone surpassing 2024’s total.
- Multisig wallet mismanagement and UI tampering caused the majority of major exploits.
- Hacken urges real-time monitoring and automated controls to prevent operational failures.
