Tether Freezes $72M USDT in Monero Money Laundering Sting
Tether froze approximately $72 million in USDT with no link to a hack, in connection with a Monero money laundering sting operation. The action follows a prior incident in which $48 million was laundered from Tron into Monero before Tether could freeze the funds.
Tether executed a $72M USDT freeze linked to a Monero laundering sting, following the earlier report of $48M laundered from Tron to Monero before a freeze could execute.
Monero: the getaway car that announced itself
Tether froze $72 million — but $48 million had already escaped. The mechanism that let it escape is the interesting part.
The laundering route used Monero as a privacy layer, but the XMR buying was large enough to push the price from $330 to roughly $430. The coin designed to be invisible became the most visible thing in the flow. Investigators spotted the operation not from Monero transaction data — which stays hidden — but from raw price impact.
That's not a failure of Monero. That's Monero working exactly as designed, while the human-scale problem (moving $120 million quietly) betrayed itself through sheer size.
If anything, this confirms the thesis. The race between Tether's freeze power and the privacy rails is real and close — and on $120 million, the rails won half of it.
Story timeline · 2 days
- Jun 15, 20268· this storyTether Freezes $72M USDT in Monero Money Laundering Sting
Tether executed a $72M USDT freeze linked to a Monero laundering sting, following the earlier report of $48M laundered from Tron to Monero before a freeze could execute.
- Jun 13, 20267$48M Laundered From Tron to Monero Before Tether Could Freeze Funds