Key Notes
- T3 Financial Crime Unit marks $300 million in frozen illicit crypto in its first year.
- It was formed by Tether, Tron, and TRM Labs to combat fraud and money laundering.
- Global collaboration earns praise from law enforcement across the world.
The T3 Financial Crime Unit, a blockchain crime-fighting task force formed by Tether, Tron TRX $0.30 24h volatility: 1.1% Market cap: $28.00 B Vol. 24h: $878.70 M , and TRM Labs, has frozen over $300 million in illicit funds during its first year of operation.
This suggests a growing ability within the crypto industry to self-regulate and enforce compliance.
Launched in late 2024 to address illicit activity on the Tron blockchain, the task force has since grown into a global enforcement model. Within just one year, the T3 FCU has assisted law enforcement in 23 jurisdictions around the world.
The United States accounted for the largest share of activity, with $83 million in frozen assets. This represents 27% of total volume across 37 cases.
A Year of Rapid Progress for T3 FCU
The task force’s progress has been massive. By January 2025, T3 had already frozen $100 million in illicit USDT, including $3 million linked to North Korean hacking networks.
By August, that figure reached $250 million amid the launch of the T3+ Global Collaborator Program .
The initiative allows crypto exchanges to coordinate directly with investigators in real time. The first participant, Binance, helped freeze $6 million from a pig-butchering scam.
As per the official announcement , the task force has primarily disrupted “pig butchering” scams , which have resulted in a loss of over $9.9 billion in 2024.
T3 FCU has also tackled organized crime networks and other forms of cyber-enabled financial fraud, earning global recognition.
Brazil’s Federal Police praised T3’s contribution to Operation Lusocoin, a major money-laundering crackdown earlier this year.
Experts say that the collaboration between blockchain firms and law enforcement agencies is a good sign for financial crime prevention.
Blockchain Crime Still a Challenge
Despite the progress, blockchain crime remains a major challenge. A recent Chainalysis report found that crypto balances tied to illicit activity exceed over $75 billion , including $15 billion directly controlled by criminal entities. Bitcoin BTC $109 499 24h volatility: 0.9% Market cap: $2.19 T Vol. 24h: $63.98 B accounts for roughly 75% of these illicit holdings.
However, an earlier report noted that unlawful crypto transactions made up just 0.14% of all blockchain transactions in 2024.
This is far below the 2-5% of the world’s GDP laundered through conventional financial systems, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime .
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