Stabelcoin
issuer
Tether
froze
41
wallets
controlled
by
people
on
the
Office
of
Foreign
Assets
Control’s
(OFAC)
Specially
Designated
Nationals
(SDN)
List
on
Saturday.
Tether
described
the
actions
as
“precautionary
measures”
in
a
blog
post.
On-chain
data
shows
that
several
wallets
had
been
using
coin-mixing
service
Tornado
Cash
in
the
past
six
months.
One
of
the
frozen
wallets
is
also
associated
with
the
$625
million
Ronin
Bridge
attack,
which,
according
to
the
U.S.
Treasury
Department,
was
executed
by
North
Korean
hacking
group
Lazarus
Group.
“By
executing
voluntary
wallet
address
freezing
of
new
additions
to
the
SDN
List
and
freezing
previously
added
addresses,
we
will
be
able
to
further
strengthen
the
positive
usage
of
stablecoin
technology
and
promote
a
safer
stablecoin
ecosystem
for
all
users,”
said
Tether
CEO
Paolo
Ardoino.
In
October,
Tether
froze
32
wallets
that
were
linked
to
terrorism
and
warfare
in
Ukraine
and
Israel.
It
also
froze
$225
million
last
month
in
relation
to
a
human
trafficking
syndicate
following
an
investigation
by
the
U.S.
Department
of
Justice.