https://www.coinspeaker.com/t3-financial-crime-unit-freezes-100m-tether-in-global-anti-money-laundering-operation/

The T3 Financial Crime Unit (T3 FCU)—an initiative formed in September last year by stablecoin issuer Tether, Tron (TRX), and TRM Labs—has frozen $100 million in USDT believed to be proceeds of illicit activities. The T3 FCU analyzed $3 billion in Tether USDT’s volume from five continents, thus leading to the latest catch.

According to Chris Janczewski, the head of global investigations at TRM Labs, money laundering as a service —which involves hiring darknet users to clean illicit funds— was the largest contributor to the recent frozen funds. Further, Janczewski noted that the T3 FCU targeted investment scams, illicit drug operations, terrorism-related financial crimes, and hacks among others.

“Blockchain is a bad place to do money laundering because it’s so transparent. We can confirm victim reports on a public blockchain and even identify other victims, a level of insight that just isn’t possible with traditional finance,” Janczewski noted.

A similar sentiment was expressed by Justin Sun, the founder of Tron blockchain, who added that criminals now have a major reason for not opting for TRX-based products. Furthermore, the T3 FCU also targeted the North Korea-sponsored hackers, with up to $3 million frozen.

“Ultimately, we hope that through our efforts, not only will victims recover their funds, but bad actors will think twice before engaging in illicit activity on blockchains like Tron,” Janczewski noted.

Market Impact on the Tron Ecosystem

Under the Biden administration, the Tron network has been under pressure from various government agencies for allegedly enabling criminal activities. For instance, the US SEC charged Sun and his family of businesses in 2023 for offering unregistered crypto asset securities and market manipulation through extensive wash trading of TRX.

Late last year, Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN) noted in a court filing that it delisted Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) due to its close affiliation with Sun.

However, Sun and the Tron DAO have responded to Coinbase by facilitating the freeze of over $100 million USDT from criminal activities. Additionally, Sun has made a significant investment, amounting to $30 million, into World Liberty Financial (WLFI), which is backed by US President-elect Donald Trump.

As a result, the Tron network is well positioned to re-enter the US market in the near term, potentially after Trump’s inauguration later this month. Moreover, the Trump administration has laid huge emphasis on enabling the growth and development of the crypto asset industry in the United States.

Related article: Europol Busts Banking Network Tied to Crypto Crime Syndicates

The biggest beneficiaries will be the TRX holders as the token gains mainstream adoption. The large-cap altcoin, with a fully diluted valuation of about $23 billion and a 24-hour average trading volume of about $823 million, is already in price discovery amid the highly anticipated altseason.