Tether has blacklisted 28 wallets in a single day.
These wallets, collectively dealing in billions of dollars worth of USDT, notably received and sent a total of close to $161 million from WhiteBIT, a crypto exchange linked to Justin Sun.
Justin Sun The Reason For Blacklist?
In a recent blog post on 30 November, stablecoin issuer Circle, associated with USD Coin, denied accusations of illicit financing and ties to Justin Sun by the Campaign for Accountability.
We believe that this may be the reason why these addresses were blocked.
In fact most of these addresses are stUSDT addresses - addresses that Coinlive analysts have previously found suspicious.
When Tether restricts a wallet, it temporarily blocks fund transfers, aiming to curb suspicious activities.
Blacklisted For Good Reason
The total count of banned addresses on Tether's blacklist has now reached 1029.
November saw Tether freeze $225 million in USDT amid a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into an international human trafficking ring in Southeast Asia.
The total USDT now in banned wallets amount to approximately $788 million.