T3 Financial Crime Unit Freezes $100 Million in USDT on Tron Blockchain
The latest development shows that since its establishment in September, the T3 financial crimes unit has frozen $100 million USDT on Tron, targeting various bad actors. This marks an important milestone in its fight against cryptocurrency-related financial crime.
Notably, the T3 Financial Crimes Unit is a collaboration between the Tron blockchain, stablecoin issuer Tether, and blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs. T3 has partnered with TRM Labs to use blockchain tools to help Tron and Tether track and freeze USDT related to illegal activities. The Tron blockchain holds nearly $60 billion in USDT, making it the second largest blockchain after Ethereum, which has just over $75 billion in USDT.
T3 revealed in a statement that the company analyzed millions of transactions across five continents and monitored a total transaction volume of more than $3 billion.
during an interview coin tableChris Janczewski, global head of investigations at TRM Labs, pointed out that money laundering as a service is the largest source of frozen funds, and criminals hire darknet entities to launder money. However, other activities such as investment fraud, drug trafficking, terrorist financing, extortion, hacking and violent crime are also targets.
Chris Janczewski said that blockchain is not a good place to launder money because it is very transparent. It allows them to verify victim reports and even identify other victims, something traditional finance cannot do.
Janczewski noted: “T3 FCU’s ability to work closely with global law enforcement to effectively prevent cybercriminals from using USDT on TRON is a proof of concept for a public-private partnership.”
T3 noted that as many as 3 million frozen USDT are linked to North Korea, which has been trying to use crypto projects to fund its regime. The U.S. Treasury Department shut down a North Korean money-laundering network in December. Chris Janczewski hopes their efforts will help victims recover their funds and deter bad actors from using blockchains like Tron to conduct illegal activities.
TRON blockchain founder Justin Sun shared on X: “Criminals now have 100 million reasons to think twice before using #TRON.”
