- Tether has frozen roughly $39.3 million across 10 TRON addresses linked to Xinbi Guarantee.
- Tether’s frozen USDT now exceeds $4.2B, reflecting expanded global law enforcement cooperation.
- Two Thai businessmen sued Tether, challenging its authority to freeze $42.4M in USDT.
Tether froze approximately $39.3 million in USDT across 10 TRON addresses linked to Xinbi Guarantee, a Chinese-language escrow marketplace that emerged on Telegram around 2022. Onchain tracing platform MistTrack, developed by SlowMist, reported the freeze. One wallet alone reportedly held more than $10 million of the frozen funds.
What Is Xinbi Guarantee?
Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs has described Xinbi Guarantee as one of Southeast Asia’s largest illicit crypto marketplaces, saying it has processed roughly $24.2 billion in cumulative transaction volume.
Part of a Bigger Enforcement Pattern
This freeze pushes Tether’s cumulative frozen USDT total past $4.2 billion since 2022. Some industry commentary has framed the action as part of a larger shift, with Tether reportedly cooperating with more than 340 law enforcement institutions across 65 countries.
Specific characterizations of Tether’s strategy, including claims it is moving from reactive freezes toward proactively flagging high-risk wallets, come from third-party analysis rather than an official Tether statement, and should be read as interpretation rather than confirmed fact.
What This Exposes About USDT
The freeze also shows a structural reality about USDT. While it moves on decentralized blockchains like TRON, Tether as the issuer retains centralized authority to freeze specific wallets. That authority allows Tether to block funds tied to illicit activity, but it also concentrates significant power in a single company’s hands, a tradeoff that continues to generate debate over how transparent and accountable that freezing authority should be.
A Legal Challenge to That Power
Tether’s freezing authority is also currently facing a direct legal test. Two Thai businessmen have filed a lawsuit in the US challenging Tether’s authority to freeze $42.4 million of their USDT.
The plaintiffs claim they acquired the tokens through secondary-market transactions with no direct customer relationship with Tether, and allege the freeze occurred before US authorities had secured a formal seizure warrant. They’re seeking an injunction and financial damages; no trial date has been set.
What It Means Going Forward
Together, the Xinbi Guarantee freeze and the pending lawsuit show tension in centralized stablecoins. The same freezing power that lets Tether disrupt illicit networks is the power now being challenged in court by parties who say they had no connection to any wrongdoing. How that lawsuit resolves could shape expectations around due process for future freezes.
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