- Tether has blacklisted new Ethereum addresses worth $150 million in USDT.
- The move is a result of the company’s measures against accounts alleged to be involved in cybercrimes and those under law enforcement investigations.
- In previous years, the company has blacklisted many other addresses too.
Tether has added three Ethereum addresses to its blacklist that hold $150 million worth of USDT stablecoin.
Being a centralized blockchain, Tether can blacklist the addresses that it confirms are part of cybercrimes like money laundering. In 2021, Tether has blacklisted a total of 312 addresses, adding to the current total of 563 addresses since it started doing so on November 28, 2017.
Tether has yet to reveal the reason for blacklisting the addresses, but it has used its role to blacklist addresses involved in cybercrimes and law enforcement investigations. After the hack on Kucoin exchange in September 2020, Tether held nearly $35 million worth of USDT to prevent hackers from benefiting from the theft.
The point for blacklisting may be due to some precautionary reasons like scams, which Arcane Assets CIO Eric Wall referred to as the reason for the Tether freeze back in 2020.
USDT remains the most widely adopted US dollar-based stablecoin today. It is followed by Circle’s USDC, which is now the sixth highest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization. Binance USD and TerraUSD are in third and fourth place, respectively.