- More than $450 million in illicit USDT has been frozen through T3’s joint work with TRON, Tether, TRM Labs, and law enforcement.
- TRON’s $1.96 trillion Q1 settlement volume shows why stablecoin networks need faster tools to trace and stop illicit funds.
TRON’s T3 Financial Crime Unit has frozen more than $450 million in illicit crypto assets since its launch in September 2024. The unit brings together TRON, Tether, and TRM Labs to help law enforcement trace and stop suspicious USDT flows on the TRON network.
The group has supported investigations across 23 jurisdictions on five continents, with a 43.9% increase in the number of funds recovered last year. It conducts investigations related to exchange hacks, networks for money laundering, financing of terrorism, drug trafficking, online fraud, extortion, and violent attacks against crypto holders.
The unit has a well-defined process. The wallets associated with possible criminal activity are flagged by authorities, and TRM Labs monitors the movement of the funds across wallets and networks. TRON provides visibility of blockchain activities, and Tether can freeze USDT addresses at the level of the USDT issuer.
Traditional asset recovery often depends on several banks, court steps, and cross-border requests. Stablecoin transfers move within minutes, so enforcement teams need faster coordination while funds remain visible on-chain.
TRON, Tether Freeze Bybit Hack Funds
T3 has already supported several major enforcement actions. In early 2025, the unit helped Spain’s Guardia Civil disrupt a Madrid-based money laundering network and freeze about $26.4 million in USDT. In Brazil, Operation Lusocoin froze more than three billion Brazilian reals in crypto holdings, including 4.3 million USDT tied to a criminal network.
The unit also traced nearly $9 million in assets linked to the Bybit hack after investigators found connections to TRON. Criminals prefer stablecoins for fast transfers, deep liquidity, and cheaper cross-border movement. Yet, those transfers still leave traceable activity on public ledgers, giving investigators a path to follow when they have reliable data and quick coordination.
Tether adds the enforcement step by freezing suspicious USDT addresses once verified legal requests reach the issuer. A stablecoin issuer can freeze an address, stop token movement, and support recovery steps under lawful procedures. That power differs from traditional banking, where one institution cannot directly control another firm’s ledger.
The largest known example came in April 2026, when Tether froze about $344.2 million in USDT linked to wallets tied to the Central Bank of Iran. Authorities connected the wallets to sanctioned entities. TRM data showed the two wallets had received about $370 million across nearly 1,000 transactions since March 2021.
In February, Tether froze about $544 million in USDT after Turkish authorities linked the funds to an illegal online gambling and money-laundering case.
TRON’s stablecoin scale makes this enforcement model more relevant. In the first quarter of this year, the network processed nearly $2 trillion in settlement volume, with $86 billion in stablecoin circulation. The network also reported uninterrupted performance during the quarter, keeping USDT transfers active across a high-volume payment environment.
TRON processed nearly $2T in settlement volume while supporting $86B+ in stablecoin circulation.
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That volume gives TRON a major role in the global stablecoin movement. It also creates a broad monitoring surface for law enforcement partners and blockchain intelligence teams.
The Financial Action Task Force cited T3 and TRM’s Beacon Network in its November 2025 Asset Recovery Guidance as examples of public-private cooperation in digital asset enforcement. The guidance called for faster coordination among law enforcement, prosecutors, exchanges, stablecoin providers, fintech firms, and blockchain intelligence companies while illicit funds remain within reach.
