Tether Freezes $160M of USDT Stablecoin on Ethereum Blockchain
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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Helene is a U.S. markets reporter at CoinDesk, covering US economics, stablecoins, and Wall Street. She is a recent graduate of New York University's business and economic reporting program.
