T3 Financial Crime Unit Freezes $100 Million in Illicit USDT
The T3 Financial Crime Unit, a collaboration between the Tron blockchain, stablecoin issuer Tether, and blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs, has frozen 100 million USDT linked to illicit activities since its formation in September.
T3 analyzed millions of transactions across five continents, monitoring over 3 billion USDT. TRM Labs utilized its blockchain intelligence tools to assist Tron and Tether in identifying and freezing USDT associated with illegal actions. Nearly $60 billion in USDT is issued on the Tron blockchain, ranking second after Ethereum's issuance of just over $75 billion.
Money laundering as a service is the primary source of frozen funds. Other illicit activities include investment scams, drug trafficking, terrorism financing, blackmail, hacks, exploits, and violent crime, according to Chris Janczewski, head of global investigations at TRM Labs. He noted that blockchain transparency complicates money laundering efforts, allowing for victim identification and transaction tracing not possible in traditional finance.
Approximately 3 million of the frozen USDT were linked to North Korean activities aimed at infiltrating crypto projects for fundraising purposes. The U.S. Department of Treasury recently announced the shutdown of a North Korean money laundering network.
Janczewski stated that the goal of their efforts is for victims to recover funds and for bad actors to reconsider engaging in illicit activities on blockchains like Tron.