T3 Financial Crime Unit Freezes $100M in USDT on Tron to Combat Crypto Crime

In a latest development, the T3 Financial crime unit has hit a milestone of 100 million frozen USDT on Tron targeting a wide variety of bad actors, since the unit was formed in September. This marks a significant milestone in its fight against cryptocurrency-related financial crime.

Notably, the T3 Financial Crime Unit is a collaboration between the Tron blockchain, stablecoin issuer Tether and blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs. T3, in partnership with TRM Labs, uses blockchain tools to help Tron and Tether track and freeze USDT linked to illegal activities. The Tron blockchain has nearly $60 billion in USDT, making it the second-largest after Ethereum, which has just over $75 billion.

T3 revealed in a statement that the venture analyzed millions of transactions across five continents, monitoring a total volume in excess of 3 billion USDT. 

In an interview with Coindesk, Chris Janczewski, the head of global investigations at TRM Labs, noted that money laundering as a service is the biggest source of frozen funds, where criminals hire dark web entities to launder money. However, other activities like investment scams, drug trafficking, terrorism financing, blackmail, hacks, and violent crime are also targets.

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Chris Janczewski remarked that blockchain is not a good place for money laundering because it’s very transparent. It allows them to verify victim reports and even identify other victims, something which traditional finance cannot do.

“T3 FCU’s ability to work closely with law enforcement worldwide to effectively disrupt cybercriminals from using USDT on TRON is a proof of concept for public-private partnerships,” noted Janczewski. 

T3 noted that that up to 3 million frozen USDT were linked to North Korea, which has been trying to use crypto projects to fund its regime. The U.S. Treasury shut down a North Korean money laundering network in December. Chris Janczewski hopes their efforts will help victims recover funds and discourage bad actors from using blockchains like Tron for illicit activities.