Image Credit: Shutterstock
- Tron, Tether and Chainalysis launched a Digital Crime Task Force on Nov. 12 to track and freeze illicit USDT on Tron.
- Law-enforcement agencies can send tips and freeze requests directly; Chainalysis adds blockchain intelligence and AI-assisted tools.
- The group replaces the T3 Financial Crime Unit with TRM Labs, which Bloomberg reported shut down in late August.
Tron, Tether and blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis launched a Digital Crime Task Force on Nov. 12 to track illicit USDT activity on the Tron network.
The group aims to help law enforcement get suspicious funds frozen before criminals move them elsewhere. Tether, which issues USDT, provides the power to block transfers of its tokens.
Law Enforcement Can Submit Tips and Freeze Requests
The task force will accept tips and asset-freeze requests directly from law-enforcement agencies. Its priorities include investment and romance scams, crypto theft, terrorist financing, North Korean cyber operations and cartel money laundering.
Chainalysis will contribute blockchain intelligence and AI-assisted investigative tools. The aim is to turn information about wallets and criminal networks into opportunities to stop funds moving, shortening the delay between detection and intervention.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino framed the initiative as a response to criminals becoming faster and more capable:
“Criminals are using AI to move faster than ever, and waiting for a victim to report a crime is no longer good enough.”
Ardoino also put Tether’s cumulative freezes linked to illicit activity at more than $7 billion, involving cooperation with over 360 law-enforcement agencies across 73 countries. Those figures cover Tether’s wider work, rather than results delivered by the newly announced task force.
The public launch details include no target detection-to-freeze time or schedule for publishing results.
AI-Linked Scam Operations Collected More Money
Chainalysis’ January research helps explain the concern about AI-enabled fraud. It found that scam operations with on-chain links to AI vendors received an average of $3.2 million each, compared with $719,000 for operations without those links.
That is roughly 4.5 times as much revenue per operation. The comparison measures money received, with the AI-linked group identified through blockchain payments to vendors.
The same report recorded approximately 1,400% growth in impersonation scam inflows during 2025. It described a wider shift toward organized operations using deepfakes, phishing services and professional laundering networks.
New Alliance Follows the End of T3
The new group follows the conclusion of the T3 Financial Crime Unit, which Tron, Tether and TRM Labs launched in September 2024. That earlier partnership also focused on illicit USDT activity on Tron.
Bloomberg reported that T3 shut down in late August amid slow responses and poor coordination, citing people familiar with the partnership.
Its operating model combined TRM’s tracing and transaction analysis, Tron’s network visibility and Tether’s issuer-level freeze authority. The important handoff was between investigators finding a wallet and the issuer acting on it.
In its explanation of that model, TRM Labs put the problem plainly:
“Intelligence without execution produces reports that arrive too late.”
On May 14, Tether said T3 had frozen more than $450 million in illicit assets; a May 18 TRM report described freezes carried out within 24 hours of law-enforcement requests. Those interventions included account takeovers and violent-crime emergencies.
