Tether, TRON & TRM Labs Freeze $100M in Stolen Assets

The T3 Financial Crime Unit (T3 FCU) has successfully managed to put a hold on $100 million worth of criminal proceeds over 5 continents.

Established in August 2024 by Tether, TRON and TRM Labs, The T3 FCU has dedicated itself to assist law enforcement agencies in the fight against the illegal use of blockchain transactions.

The unit has cyber crime operatives that track and investigate foreign exchanges, which include but are not limited to money laundering, blackmail, terrorism financing and fraud.

The founder of TRON, Justin Sun, appealing to the milestone as showing the heightened measures which are being taken against the use of USDT, a coin which is built on top of TRON’s blockchain. He advised there is now an impetus for criminals to begin to reconsider using TRON.

Paolo Ardoino, chief executive of Tether, spoke positively about how the partnership of government entities and the private sector improves security measures in many different states.

Tether stated that the T3 FCU has monitored approximately $3 billion in USDT transactions and even prevented the misuse of stable coins by bad actors.

In order to follow the money, the T3 FCU has access to modern technology and investigative experience.

As pointed out by Chris Janczewski of TRM Labs, the successful asset freeze is only the first step, with expectations to increase forthcoming operations.

T3 FCU has been contacted by law enforcement agencies from Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas in relation to major cases of stablecoin theft and fraud.

The unit was established in order to combat the illicit use of stablecoins and maintain the credibility of the industry.

Unlike other informal law enforcement collaborations, the T3 FCU is an autonomous body that provides real time information to law enforcement across the globe.

It pertains to the TRON network and the tokens, including employing Tether’s outside investigations team to chase flagged wallets in a matter of hours.

Using T3 FCU’s approach, stablecoins became less appealing for criminals and made international law enforcement efforts easier.

Its activities resulted in seizing assets related to blackmail groups and funded by scams and investment frauds in multiple jurisdictions.

Mechanisms are being developed to improve the cross border law enforcement in order to freeze the active frauds as fast as possible.

There is always the issue of privacy, but T3 FCU’s top management guarantees that it has been respecting all the required legal steps.

The achievement of a $100 million mark is viewed as a building block for further work as T3 FCU grows broader in its monitoring of the activity of transactions with known risk factors.