Tether freezes $1M in USDT on THORChain, lifts ban after 3 hours
Summary
Tether temporarily froze $1.45 million in USDT across four THORChain vaults on the Tron blockchain, leading to the suspension of affected swaps, as reported by The Defiant. The freeze, which Tether did not explain and for which THORChain received no prior warning, marked an unprecedented action in their dealings with stablecoin issuers. After three hours, Tether reversed the blacklist, allowing access to the funds and resuming services, but another 19 addresses remain blacklisted. THORChain operates vaults on Tron to facilitate liquidity and cross-chain swaps without the need for wrapped tokens.
Tokens
$USDT
Analysis
Tether: Tether is the issuer of the USDT stablecoin and maintains blacklist functions in its smart contracts on multiple chains to support regulatory compliance. In this event, Tether temporarily blacklisted addresses tied to THORChain's TRON vaults before reversing the action hours later. THORChain: THORChain is a decentralized protocol that enables native cross-chain asset swaps and liquidity provision through threshold signature vaults on various blockchains. The protocol suspended its TRON-based swaps and related operations after Tether froze USDT in four of its vaults, resuming services once the blacklist was lifted. Compliance Tools: Tether's USDT contracts on Tron and other chains include addBlackList and removeBlackList functions used to restrict transfers from flagged addresses. Coordination Issues: THORChain received no advance notice of the freeze and described the action as unprecedented in its interactions with stablecoin issuers. Cross-Chain Operations: THORChain maintains vaults on Tron to support liquidity and swaps involving native assets across blockchains without requiring wrapped tokens.
Categories
cryptodefihyperliquid
Related sources
- https://eaglevirtual.com/learn/can-my-usdt-be-frozen
- https://cryptoslate.com/how-tethers-45-million-crackdown-drove-southeast-asian-scam-compounds-into-an-unfreezable-decentralized-stablecoin/
- https://www.kucoin.com/news/flash/tether-blacklists-thorchain-s-tron-usdt-vaults-freezing-1-45m-usdt
- https://www.tokenpost.com/tag/thorchain
- https://www.learningcrypto.com/resources/tether-smart-contract-explained
- https://www.tokenpost.com/news/technology/29104
- https://eaglevirtual.com/usdt-blacklist
- https://cryptobriefing.com/tether-blacklists-thorchain-vaults-tron/
- https://thedefiant.io/news/defi/tether-blacklists-four-thorchain-vaults-holding-1-45-million-usdt
- https://www.weex.com/learn/articles/how-tether-freezes-usdt-address-blacklists-and-holder-checks-q56oqt6ybp7bciszfw5fk2zp