🚨 Tether just froze $182M USDT in 24 hours — and it says a lot about stablecoins.

According to ChainCatcher (citing Whale Alert), on Jan 11 Tether froze over $182 million USDT across five TRON wallets, with each wallet holding roughly $12M–$50M.

Crypto was built to resist censorship — but stablecoins are the exception. While they dominate liquidity (often quoted around ~60% of the stablecoin market), they’re also highly centralized by design. With a single contract-level action, Tether can blacklist addresses and freeze funds — and it reportedly works closely with U.S. enforcement agencies (DOJ, FBI, Secret Service) in certain cases.

The bigger signal is this:

Chainalysis suggests that by end-2025, stablecoins could represent 84% of illicit transaction volume.

AMLBot reports that from 2023–2025, Tether froze about $3.3B and blacklisted 7,268 addresses.

Yet USDT market cap still sits around $187B, roughly 60% of the stablecoin market.

✅ Takeaway: Stablecoins are the market’s bloodstream — but also its most centralized chokepoint.

The question isn’t whether censorship exists… it’s who controls it, and when it gets used.

Disclaimer: Third-party info. Not financial advice. May include sponsored content. See T&Cs.