Justin Sun’s Tron Freezes $100 Million In Illicit USDT Activity

The T3 Financial Crime Unit, a collaboration between the Tron blockchain, Tether, and TRM Labs, has frozen $100 million in USDT linked to illicit activities since its formation in September.

The unit leverages TRM Labs’ blockchain intelligence tools to monitor and analyze transactions involving USDT on the Tron blockchain.

Tron is the largest blockchain network for USDT transactions, with $60.8 billion in Tron-based USDT, roughly 51% of all USDT in circulation.

The team reviewed millions of transactions across five continents, tracking over $3 billion in USDT on the Tron blockchain, which accounts for nearly $60 billion in issued stablecoins. Tron ranks second only to Ethereum, which has $75 billion in USDT issuance.

According to TRM Labs’ head of global investigations, Chris Janczewski, the largest source of frozen funds involved “money laundering as a service,” where bad actors hire entities on the dark web to launder illicit funds. Other cases included investment scams, terrorism financing, illicit drug trade, hacks, blackmail scams, and violent crime.

Janczewski highlighted blockchain’s transparency as a critical advantage in combating financial crime. “We can confirm victim reports on a public blockchain and even identify other victims, a level of insight that just isn’t possible with traditional finance,” he told CoinDesk.

The frozen USDT includes $3 million tied to North Korea, which has been implicated in attempts to infiltrate cryptocurrency projects to fund its leadership regime. In December, the U.S. Department of Treasury dismantled a North Korean money laundering network.

“Through our efforts, we hope not only to recover funds for victims but also to make bad actors think twice before engaging in illicit activity on blockchains like Tron,” Janczewski said.

The T3 FCU combines TRM Labs’ expertise in anti-financial crime and analytics with Tron’s technical capabilities. Tether contributes through its external investigations team. The unit’s focus includes tracking transactions associated with terrorism, sanctions evasion, theft, hacking, cybercrime, and fraud.

“This collaboration sends a clear message that illicit activity is not welcome in our industry,” said Tron founder and CEO Justin Sun.