In brief
- Tron, Tether and Chainalysis launched the Digital Crime Task Force to proactively identify illicit USDT activity on Tron and help law enforcement freeze funds before criminals move them, using Chainalysiss AI-powered tools.
- It replaces the T3 Financial Crime Unit, a near-identical effort Tron and Tether ran with rival analytics firm TRM Labs that froze $450 million but was quietly disbanded in late August over coordination problems.
- Swapping TRM for competitor Chainalysis is pointed given the rivalry—Chainalysis sued the U.S. over an ICE contract awarded to TRM.
Tron, Tether, and blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis have launched a joint effort to hunt down and disrupt criminal activity involving the USDT stablecoin, just weeks after a nearly identical alliance, with a different analytics partner, quietly fell apart.
Announced Wednesday, the Digital Crime Task Force aims to identify illicit activity involving Tethers USDT on the Tron blockchain and surface it for law enforcement before criminals can move their funds.
The pitch is a shift from reactive to proactive: rather than waiting for a victim to report a crime or an investigator to flag tainted funds, the group says it will proactively trace criminal networks and coordinate asset freezes, drawing on Chainalysiss intelligence and AI-powered investigative tools. It will also accept tips and freeze requests from police.
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“Criminals are using AI to move faster than ever, and waiting for a victim to report a crime is no longer good enough,” said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, noting the company has frozen more than $7 billion tied to illicit activity while working with over 360 law enforcement agencies across 73 countries.
Tron founder Justin Sun framed it as protecting the millions who rely on USDT, which circulates on Tron to the tune of more than $94 billion.
The notable wrinkle is what this new alliance replaces. Tron and Tether previously ran a similar operation, the T3 Financial Crime Unit, formed in 2024 with rival analytics firm TRM Labs and later joined by Binance. Together, the group froze more than $450 million in tainted assets.
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But Bloomberg reported earlier this month that T3 was quietly disbanded in late August, with people familiar citing slow response times and a lack of coordination among its members. Its collapse went public just days before the record $6.4 billion Binance hack.
Swapping TRM for Chainalysis is a pointed move, given the two are fierce competitors. Chainalysis has even sued the U.S. government over an ICE contract awarded to TRM without competitive bidding, underscoring the rivalry now running through cryptos crime-fighting infrastructure.
The new task force says it will target a broad sweep of threats, from romance and investment scams to stolen funds, terrorist financing, North Korean cyber operations, cartel money laundering and child-exploitation material.
The group also framed the effort around a coming era of autonomous AI agents transacting onchain, which it warned will open fresh avenues for criminal exploitation.
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