A new on-chain study by AMLBot shows that Tether has frozen more than $3.29 billion in USDT across the Ethereum and Tron blockchains from 2023 to 2025, with 7,268 addresses blacklisted. By comparison, Circle’s USDC froze $109 million across 372 addresses during the same period, signaling two distinct enforcement philosophies shaping the stablecoin market. Most of the difference stems from Tron, where $1.75 billion of USDT sits in blacklisted wallets, reflecting the network’s heavy use in Asia and cross-border settlements.
Tether relies on frequent coordination with authorities, working with more than 275 law enforcement agencies across 59 jurisdictions and enabling wallet restriction after court orders or hack notifications. In July 2024, USDT freezes topped $130 million, including $29.6 million on Tron, linked to Cambodia’s sanctioned Huione Group. A distinctive feature of USDT is its burn-and-reissue process, allowing frozen tokens to be destroyed and replaced with clean ones sent back to victims or authorities. Circle’s approach, by contrast, tends to follow explicit legal triggers such as court orders or sanctions, with fewer batch-like events noted in on-chain data.
Earlier in the month, Circle announced a partnership with Bybit to make USDC the default stablecoin across the exchange’s trading, payments, and savings products. The strategy leans heavily on predictability and compliance, traits institutions often favor. The data shows that stablecoin enforcement is no longer a niche topic, given that these tokens are moving further into everyday finance. The timing of this report is notable as Circle pushes deeper into regulated markets.
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