Tether Freezes $160M of USDT Stablecoin on Ethereum Blockchain

The last time Tether froze an account was in late December.

AccessTimeIconJan 13, 2022 at 7:57 p.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 3:55 p.m. UTC
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Stablecoin issuer Tether froze three Ethereum addresses on Thursday, holding over $160 million worth of USDT, according to data from Etherscan.

  • The three accounts will now not be able to move funds.
  • In total, Tether has blacklisted 563 addresses on the Ethereum blockchain since November 2017, according to the Bloxy block explorer.
  • Tether has said in the past that it regularly works with regulators to supervise suspicious accounts.
  • An address with over $1 million in USDT was frozen in late December.
  • Tether, which issues tokens on several blockchains, began blacklisting addresses following a November 2017 breach in which the firm said $30 million of USDT was stolen.
  • "Today, Tether has frozen three addresses on the Ethereum blockchain containing $160m USDt upon a request from law enforcement. At the moment we are unable to disclose any further details," a Tether spokesperson wrote in an email.

UPDATE (Jan. 13 21:40 UTC): Adds statement from Tether.

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