freeze

Tether announced that it has supported the U.S. government's freeze of over $344 million USDT, involving two wallet addresses. This freezing action was carried out in collaboration with the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and U.S. law enforcement agencies, aimed at preventing further movement of funds.The freeze was based on information provided by multiple U.S. law enforcement agencies, linking these addresses to illegal activities. Tether stated that when wallet addresses are associated with sanctions evasion, criminal networks, or other illegal activities, the company will take freezing measures. This has now become Tether's routine response to legitimate requests from U.S. and global law enforcement agencies.Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated, "USDT is by no means a safe haven for illegal activities. We take immediate action when there are credible links to sanctioned entities or criminal networks. Recent events have shown what can happen when platforms fail to act swiftly, law enforcement fails, users are exposed, and trust is lost. Our approach is different; we combine blockchain transparency, real-time monitoring, and direct coordination with law enforcement agencies to prevent the flow of funds. This is a responsibility we take very seriously as one of the largest issuers in the market."This action is part of Tether's cooperation with U.S. law enforcement agencies. The U.S. Department of Justice had previously confirmed Tether's support in law enforcement actions, successfully seizing nearly $61 million and approximately $225 million in "pork scam" funds.

According to MLM monitoring, Tether has just frozen two wallets on the Tron chain, involving funds of up to 344 million USDT.

The Spark strategy chief monetsupply.eth tweeted criticism of Aave's decision to unfreeze the core Ethereum WETH market, arguing that this decision is poorly considered under current conditions. After the unfreezing, it will allow LST/LRT holders to establish extremely high-yield looping positions, resulting in continuous liquidity shortages for aEthWETH, making it difficult for ordinary users to withdraw normally.Taking weETH looping as an example: weETH is currently trading at a 0.5% discount, and if it returns to par within a month, the implied yield is about 6%. Combined with the basic staking yield, the total yield can reach 8%. Meanwhile, the maximum borrowing rate for core ETH on Aave is 5.15%, allowing loopers to earn an additional 2.85% yield; weETH can be leveraged up to 14 times, resulting in a maximum annualized yield of about 45%.He believes that this essentially provides LST/LRT loopers with a "free lunch," while further deteriorating the user experience for aWETH holders and stablecoin borrowers.

The Arbitrum Security Committee announcement has taken emergency action to rescue 30,766 ETH stored at the Arbitrum One address, which is related to the KelpDAO vulnerability. With the assistance of law enforcement, the Security Committee identified the attacker and has always ensured that the safety and integrity of the Arbitrum community are maintained without affecting any Arbitrum users or applications.After extensive technical investigation and review, the Security Committee identified and executed a technical solution to transfer the funds to a secure location without impacting the state of any other chains or Arbitrum users. As of 11:26 PM Eastern Time on April 20, the funds have been successfully transferred to an intermediate frozen wallet. The address that originally held the funds can no longer access them, and only the Arbitrum governance body can take further action to transfer these funds, which will be coordinated with the relevant parties.

Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, stated that Bitcoin's quantum defense proposal BIP-361 has been mischaracterized as a soft fork, and is actually closer to a hard fork, and it cannot protect approximately 1.7 million early BTC generated before 2013, including about 1 million bitcoins attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto.He mentioned that the zero-knowledge proof recovery scheme in the proposal relies on BIP-39 mnemonic phrases, while early wallets used different key generation methods that cannot provide the required proof, thus the relevant assets may be permanently frozen under the current scheme. Reports also indicated that BIP-361 co-author Jameson Lopp described it as a rough concept for an emergency plan, rather than a final specification.

According to market news, Blockstream CEO Adam Back stated at the Paris Blockchain Week that he supports the optional advancement of Bitcoin's quantum resistance upgrade and opposes the proposal to forcibly freeze quantum-vulnerable addresses. He emphasized that "preparation is much safer than hasty responses in a crisis" and pointed out that the Bitcoin community has the coordination ability to respond quickly to urgent vulnerabilities.Previously, the BIP-361 proposal ("Post-Quantum Migration and Legacy Signature Sunset") put forward by developers Jameson Lopp and five others advocated for the gradual elimination of quantum-vulnerable addresses over five years, ultimately freezing coins that have not completed migration— including approximately 1.7 million Bitcoins held by Satoshi Nakamoto.

Bitcoin core developer Jameson Lopp stated that, compared to the potential quantum computing attacks that may arise in the future, he prefers to "freeze" about 5.6 million long-dormant BTC from the network rather than let them be acquired by attackers. These Bitcoins have not moved for over 10 years and may be permanently lost, valued at approximately $42 billion at current prices. If future breakthroughs in quantum computing lead to the decryption of old address private keys, this portion of assets could be re-transferred, triggering severe market fluctuations or even a crisis of confidence.Although the community recently proposed BIP-361, the proposal is still in its early stages and is not an officially promoted plan, but rather more like a contingency plan to address "extreme risks."

According to Jinshi reports, the White House stated that U.S. officials deny that the U.S. has agreed to unfreeze Iranian assets.

According to Cointelegraph, the joint law enforcement operation "Operation Atlantic" by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada was completed in March this year, led by the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA). Over $12 million in suspected fraud proceeds were frozen, and more than 20,000 victims were identified, with a total fraud amount exceeding $45 million.This operation focused on authorized phishing attacks—a scam technique that induces users to sign malicious authorizations, thereby allowing attackers to transfer tokens from the wallet. Binance participated by providing account screening and fraud intelligence support, but no funds were frozen from its platform.

On-chain detective ZachXBT stated on platform X that Circle has unfrozen two previously frozen hot wallets, marked as "500 Casino" and "Whale." Previously, due to the address being frozen, users were unable to withdraw from a certain centralized exchange to the affected business hot wallets.ZachXBT pointed out that, currently, the basic details of the case, such as the plaintiff, expert witnesses, and why Circle did not raise any objections, have not been disclosed. Earlier reports indicated that ZachXBT stated Circle, under public pressure, had unfrozen one of the 16 USDC wallets that were blacklisted.

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the Home Office jointly announced sanctions against the illegal cryptocurrency market Xinbi and individuals related to Southeast Asian scam networks. According to data from blockchain analysis company Chainalysis, Xinbi processed over $19.9 billion in transactions from 2021 to 2025, involving illegal activities such as money laundering, unlicensed over-the-counter trading, and the sale of stolen personal data. The UK is the first country in the world to impose sanctions on Xinbi.The sanctions also involve the operator of the Cambodian "#8 Park" scam base, Legend Innovation Co., and its head Eang Soklim, who is believed to be holding up to 20,000 trafficked workers. Meanwhile, multiple properties in London have been frozen, with previously seized assets including an office building valued at £100 million, two luxury homes, and a helicopter. UK officials stated that this action aims to cut off the financial infrastructure of the scam networks and will promote broader international coordinated cooperation at the illegal finance summit in June this year.

According to The Block, "on-chain detective" ZachXBT revealed that Circle has unfrozen one of the 16 USDC wallets that were previously blacklisted. The wallet address is 0x61f...e543, associated with Goated.com, and currently holds approximately 130,966 USDC. ZachXBT stated that the remaining affected wallets are expected to be restored in the near future.This unfreezing occurred after strong criticism from the public. Earlier reports indicated that Circle had frozen the USDC balances in 16 hot wallets related to different businesses, and ZachXBT claimed that this action was related to an undisclosed civil case in the United States, which is under confidentiality.ZachXBT harshly criticized this freezing action, stating that the parties involved did not provide any basis for the freeze and described it as one of the most incompetent freezing operations he has seen in his five years of work. MetaMask security researcher Taylor Monahan also criticized Circle on social media for lacking accountability mechanisms. Currently, Circle has not issued a public statement regarding the specific wallet or the legal basis for the freeze.

According to CoinDesk, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has frozen its IPO plans due to difficult market conditions and may consider restarting once the market improves.Insiders revealed that Kraken's parent company Payward secretly submitted an S-1 registration draft to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on November 19 last year. The pause is mainly due to the continuous decline in the crypto market since Bitcoin reached its all-time high last October, with shrinking trading volumes and cautious investor sentiment.

According to market news, the European Cybercrime Centre, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Justice and other agencies, has announced the dismantling of a malicious proxy service network named "SocksEscort" and the freezing of $3.5 million in cryptocurrency related to the case.The network is said to have compromised over 369,000 routers and IoT devices in 163 countries worldwide, providing users with over 35,000 proxies in recent years. The European Cybercrime Centre stated that 34 domain names and 23 servers were seized in operations across 7 countries, and payment platforms associated with the service are estimated to have received over $5.7 million in cryptocurrency. The investigation began in June 2025 and found that the infected devices were primarily used to facilitate criminal activities such as ransomware and DDoS attacks.The U.S. Department of Justice has charged that criminals used the proxy service to conceal their location and commit fraud, including bank and cryptocurrency account takeovers, citing multiple victim loss cases, including a New York cryptocurrency exchange customer who was scammed out of $1 million.

The CEO of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, Ashley Alder, stated that the agency has received nearly 900 complaints about investment fraud, with a quarter related to virtual currencies.The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission will collaborate with the police, customs, the Monetary Authority, as well as licensed brokers and virtual asset service providers (licensed entities) to establish communication channels with licensed entities and actively cooperate with the police's anti-fraud coordination center's "24/7 payment halt mechanism" to immediately freeze transfers involved in fraud or high risk.

The U.S. Treasury Department, in its report on the GENIUS Act submitted to Congress, suggested that Congress consider creating a "hold law" for digital assets. This proposal aims to provide a legal safe harbor for crypto platforms, allowing them to temporarily and voluntarily freeze digital assets suspected of illegal activity during investigations.Ari Redbord, policy director at TRM Labs, stated that this legislation would give law enforcement time to address the rapid nature of blockchain transactions. Although the Bank Secrecy Act protects institutions that submit suspicious activity reports, there is currently a lack of clear statutory provisions authorizing platforms to freeze funds without a court order. The report noted that this move would strengthen public-private partnerships in combating crypto fraud and money laundering.

The U.S. Treasury submitted a 32-page report to Congress stating that cryptocurrency mixers can be used for legitimate financial privacy purposes, allowing users to protect sensitive information such as personal wealth, business payments, or charitable donations. This stance marks a shift from its attitude when sanctioning Tornado Cash in 2022.The report reveals that North Korean cybercriminals stole at least $2.8 billion in digital assets between January 2024 and September 2025, including $1.5 billion stolen from Bybit, and regularly used mixers for multi-step money laundering. Since May 2020, over $1.6 billion in mixer deposits have flowed into cross-chain bridges, with more than $900 million concentrated in a bridging protocol related to North Korean money laundering activities.The report distinguishes between custodial and non-custodial mixers, noting that compliant custodial mixers can provide customer identity and off-chain transaction data, but it did not recommend imposing new restrictions on non-custodial mixers. In terms of legislative recommendations, the report urges Congress to create a digital asset-specific "freezing law" to provide safe harbor protection for financial institutions to temporarily freeze suspicious assets during short-term investigations, and suggests that Congress clarify which DeFi participants should bear anti-money laundering obligations.The report also proposes adding a "sixth special measure" to Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, authorizing the Treasury to impose bans or restrictions on specific digital asset transfers that do not involve agency banking relationships. This report was prepared based on Section 9 of the GENIUS Act signed in July 2025.

According to Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Research, the U.S. Treasury submitted a report to Congress under the GENIUS Act, recommending that DeFi should explicitly bear anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) obligations, and consider establishing a "hold law" safe harbor mechanism for digital assets, allowing institutions to temporarily freeze assets during investigations of suspicious transactions without a court order.The report also revealed that the scale of crypto crime continues to grow, with losses from crypto scams recorded by the FBI reaching $9 billion in 2024.