TL;DR
- The T3 Financial Crime Fighting Unit, formed by Tron, Tether, and TRM Labs, has frozen 100 million USDT linked to illicit activities.
- The unit uses blockchain intelligence tools to track and block malicious funds, monitoring over 3 billion USDT, mainly on the Tron blockchain.
- The frozen funds have been linked to crimes such as money laundering, investment fraud, drug trafficking, and terrorism. Additionally, North Korea has frequently been involved in the crimes.
The T3 Financial Crime Fighting Unit, a partnership between Tron, Tether, and TRM Labs, has successfully frozen a total of 100 million USDT linked to illicit activities. This has been made possible through the monitoring and analysis of millions of transactions over the past months. The unit’s goal is to combat financial crimes and protect the blockchain industry by identifying and blocking funds associated with illegal activities.
The T3 unit employs TRM Labs’ blockchain intelligence tools to track and halt the flow of USDT used by malicious actors. In its work, it has monitored a volume of over 3 billion USDT, with most of this amount issued on the Tron blockchain.
One of the most common crimes related to the frozen funds has been money laundering. Criminals use dark web services to clean illegally obtained funds. Additionally, funds linked to investment fraud, drug trafficking, terrorism, extortion, and other types of financial crimes have been frozen. In this sense, blockchain’s ability to provide full traceability of transactions has been crucial for T3 to identify and freeze illicit funds.
The Transparency of TRON Has Been Key
According to Chris Janczewski, Head of Global Investigations at TRM Labs, a considerable amount of the frozen funds had ties to North Korea, which has attempted to infiltrate various crypto projects to fundraise for the country’s dictatorial regime. In response to this threat, the U.S. Department of Treasury recently announced the closure of a money laundering network operated from the country.
Despite the relentless fight against financial crime, the T3 unit remains committed to its goal of dismantling any illicit network that appears and protecting the victims of wrongdoers. Their work could serve as a deterrent for future criminals, who might reconsider using blockchains like Tron for illegal activities, given the transparency the technology offers
