Tether freezes all USDT wallets on the US sanctions list

The company claims that this measure will help foster a secure ecosystem of stablecoins

11.12.2023 - 07:40

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What’s new? Tether, the company that issues the USDT stablecoin, announced the introduction of a new policy to “Strengthen Ecosystem Security” and began voluntarily freezing the wallets included in the US sanctions list without waiting for the relevant orders from the authorities. According to the company, the measure is implemented in addition to existing security protocols to work more closely with global regulators and promote the fair use of stablecoin technology.

Press release

What else is known? The company has frozen all wallets on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) within the US Department of the Treasury and will block new ones as they become available. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said that this is how the company intends to foster a secure stablecoin ecosystem.

Earlier, Tether itself faced accusations from senators of facilitating payments in favor of terrorist groups. Then the company rejected the accusations, recalling its active cooperation with law enforcers in different countries.

Later, the Treasury Department allowed the possibility of foreign issuers of stablecoins to be added to the sanctions lists to combat sanctions violations and money laundering. In this case, Tether, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands, is also at risk of being banned.

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Earlier, the non-profit organization Campaign for Accountability said that Palestinian groups are actively using USDC on the TRON blockchain

On the eve of issuing a press release about the new policy, Tether froze a wallet with 3,43 million USDT that blockchain researcher ZachXBT said was linked to North Korean hackers who attacked betting platform Stake com. It lost over $40 million in cryptocurrencies as a result of the September 4 hack.

Source: Twitter.com

Tether’s USDT stablecoin pegged to the US dollar is the largest asset in its segment in the crypto market, ranking third in the overall market capitalization ranking, behind only bitcoin and Ethereum. As of December 11, the asset’s capitalization exceeds $90,6 billion.

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