The issuer of Tether (USDT), Tether company, freezes stablecoins much more frequently than Circle, which issues USDC (USDC).
Employees of the AMLBot organization reported that from the beginning of 2023 through December 2025:
Tether blocked USDT valued at \$3.29 billion, while Circle froze USDC amounting to \$109 million;
Tether blacklisted 7,268 crypto wallet addresses, whereas Circle listed only 372.
Thus, during the specified timeframe, Tether acted more assertively, locking down 30 times more stablecoins and imposing restrictions almost 20 times more often. This can partly be attributed to the significant popularity of USDT, surpassing USDC in market capitalization by more than twofold.
Increase in the number of frozen crypto wallets on the Ethereum blockchain holding USDT
The TRON (TRX) blockchain is highly sought after in Asia, so over half of the frozen USDT, valued at \$1.75 billion, corresponds to coins issued on this network. Specifically, among the blocked stablecoins were digital assets worth \$29.6 million belonging to the fraudulent organization Huione Group from Cambodia.
Furthermore, this year Tether immobilized USDT worth \$27 million that were held by users of the Russian exchange Garantex, against which the governments of the USA and the European Union imposed sanctions for money laundering. As a result of the stablecoin freeze, the trading platform initially paused operations and subsequently ceased altogether.
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