Tron, Tether and Chainalysis launch Digital Crime Task Force

Tron, Tether and Chainalysis announced the Digital Crime Task Force on Thursday, November 12, a joint group targeting illicit USDT activity on the Tron network. The move follows the end of the T3 Financial Crime Unit, which Tron and Tether formed with TRM Labs in 2024 and which disbanded in late August.

How the task force works

The group pairs Chainalysis data with AI tools to identify suspicious transfers and hand leads to law enforcement.

• Chainalysis supplies the blockchain analytics data and AI tools
• The group flags suspicious USDT activity on Tron
• Law enforcement receives leads to trace and freeze the funds

"Criminals are using AI to move faster than ever, and waiting for a victim to report a crime is no longer good enough," Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in the announcement. Ardoino put Tether's cumulative USDT freezes at more than $7B.

Priorities

The announcement lists five priority areas:

• Investment and romance scams
• Crypto theft
• Terrorist financing
• North Korean cyber operations
• Cartel money laundering

What changes from T3

The T3 Financial Crime Unit launched in 2024 with Tron, Tether and TRM Labs and disbanded in late August. Tron and Tether stay in the new structure, with Chainalysis as the blockchain analytics partner instead of TRM Labs.

The stated goal is to cut the time between flagging a transfer and freezing the funds, without waiting for a victim report.

Recent precedents

Tether froze more than $1.5B in USDT within 30 minutes of the October 29 Binance hack, which the FBI attributed to North Korea. The company said the freeze cut off a key funding source for Pyongyang's weapons programme.

Chainalysis published a trace of the $6.4B Binance hack and its North Korea link on October 30. On November 2, the firm said it led the freeze of nearly $10M stolen in the Mercado Bitcoin attack.