Tron, Tether crime unit freezes $250M in illicit crypto, adds Binance as partner
Tron, Tether, and TRM Labs say their joint financial crime unit has frozen more than $250 million in illicit crypto assets since launching less than a year ago, and is expanding its reach through a new program that brings Binance on as its first member.
Launched in September 2024, the T3 Financial Crime Unit (T3 FCU) is a public-private initiative designed to track and disrupt illicit blockchain transactions.
The $250 million frozen is more than double the amount reported in the first six months after T3 FCU’s launch. In January, the unit disclosed it had intercepted over $100 million in illicit assets since its August 2024 debut.
The unit said it had worked with law enforcement agencies worldwide on cases involving money laundering, investment fraud, blackmail operations, terrorism financing, and other financial crimes.
The newly unveiled T3+ program builds on the existing framework by enlisting exchanges, financial institutions, and other industry players around the globe to share intelligence and respond to threats in real time.
According to the founder of Tron, Justin Sun, the new unit will expand “the scope of collaboration across the blockchain industry to better address illicit activity in real time.”
Wave of faster crypto attacks leaves little time to recover funds
The launch comes amid a wave of increasingly sophisticated crypto hacks.
A report from Global Ledger, a Swiss blockchain analytics company, revealed that over $3 billion in crypto was stolen in the first half of 2025, and the speed at which hackers moved funds was increasing.
According to the report, the fastest hacks saw the laundering of funds completed in under three minutes, and over 30% of laundering was completed within 24 hours. The average time it took to move funds was around 15 hours after a breach, and in about 23% of cases, stolen crypto was fully laundered before the hack had even been disclosed.
The speed at which hackers can move funds has resulted in only 4.2% of stolen funds being recovered in the first half of the year.
The study also found that in the first half of 2025, roughly 15% of illicit crypto flowed through centralized exchanges, where compliance teams typically have only 10 to 15 minutes to intercept suspicious transfers before the assets disappear.
Many attacks have been linked to state-sponsored hacking groups, cybercrime syndicates, and foreign-based fraud networks operating across jurisdictions, making recovery and enforcement more difficult.
One recent example came earlier this week, when hackers claimed to have breached a major North Korean cyber-espionage operation. The leak allegedly revealed tactics used by the regime to target cryptocurrency platforms worldwide, underscoring how nation-state actors are evolving their methods alongside the broader surge in crypto crimes.
Debate grows over stablecoin issuers’ power to freeze funds
While T3 FCU has recovered significant sums and its partnership with Binance could make it more effective in stopping hacks, not everyone supports the idea of stablecoin issuers and centralized exchanges freezing funds.
Last month, Tether froze nearly $86,000 in stolen USDt, prompting renewed debate over centralized control in stablecoin ecosystems. Because issuers can halt transactions at the smart contract level, they have a rare ability in crypto to intercept stolen funds. Still, that same power can threaten user sovereignty and the decentralized principles the industry was built on.
Still others believe it is necessary. CEO of Tether, Paolo Ardoino, said, “Bad actors have nowhere to hide on the blockchain… and that it’s only through collective effort that we can build a safer, more trusted environment for users worldwide.”
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