and more USDT will be frozen https://cryptobriefing.com/tether-can-freeze-your-usdt-39-addresses-containing-millions-blacklisted/
just wait for it

if you think about it, holding USDC is really no different than holding USD at coinbase. they are both just centrally issued IOUs from an exchange. freezing and confiscation were always a possibility, especially when you consider potential requests from law enforcement. i was always curious about the exact method of confiscation. i guess now we know.


i was surprised to find out recently that tether has actually blacklisted significantly more. there are dozens of blacklisted (frozen) addresses totalling ~8 million USDT. https://twitter.com/PhABCD/status/1281054838172848128

Looks like another address containing another $1.5 million USDT was just banned yesterday. You can keep track using this dashboard: https://explore.duneanalytics.com/public/dashboards/3zhIaRUCFgmZMKqHG0pguvSvw1aOGL8gxFtZ2ujf

Call me cynical/crazy, but maybe this is how Tether get out of the fact that they have printed millions of USDT out of thin air which aren't backed up by USD, or indeed, by any asset whatsoever. Permanently blacklisting an address like this effectively burns the coins and removes them circulation. Nice easy way for them to renege on some of their commitments.

But 40 addresses containing a combined almost $10 million USDT have been blacklisted going as far back as 2017, and this is the first we're hearing about it. Given the Tether is a complete scam from top to bottom, I wouldn't put something like this past them.

Centralized exchanges freeze accounts and seize coins all the time with very little blowback from the community. No reason Tether can't do the same. I also wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if Tether started demanding KYC and proof of address ownership from various people in return for having their addresses un-blacklisted.

they know very well what happened to each exchange that suddenly did this while others weren't, how their users mass-migrated to the competition and they dropped from being far head #1 down to #10, #20,... and kept going down.
so i don't think we can expect such behavior anytime soon unless there were serious governmental pressure.

that seems doubtful to me. there is less than $10 million USDT frozen---bitfinex makes as much in trading fees in a matter of weeks. considering $9.2 billion of tether has been issued in total, this amount of money is a rounding error, so i really doubt tether could be bothered with a scheme like that. as with the USDC freeze, these frozen funds are likely related to law enforcement requests---theft, OFAC sanctions, things like that.

You can still get a dollar or a dollar's value for it. That's what it's for and that's all that people care about.

I'm really amazed it's continued to grow but it's just another illustration of the willingness of people in this space to make the same old mistakes, and some sexy new ones.

i'm not amazed really since it is expected. tether grew because it is filling a gap and will continue to grow as long as that gap exists.
this gap is two things. first is the need that altcoin traders have for something that has a "stable" value so that they can escape to whenever bitcoin rises or drops and causes the mass dump of altcoins. and second is another need that altcoin traders have for an easy, cheap, no KYC way of transferring value between exchanges.
if you compare the times when tether growth peaked with the altcoin market pump and dump periods you can see that the major rises were:
1. 2017 mass altcoin pump when every single altcoin even the long dead ones worth less than 1 satoshi got pumped
2. 2017 ICO mania where thousands of ICO were being created every month or so
3. 2018-2019 mass altcoin dump which was the reverse of #1
4. 2018 mass ICO death which was reverse of #2
interestingly enough tether was added to ethereum network to exactly be used for pump and dumping ICO tokens during the ICO mania by the end of 2017 and grow a lot during the ICO death spiral next 2 years.

this is also why i always found it very weird when people kept linking tether with bitcoin price when almost all of tether's volume (near 98%) and its main purpose is for altcoin trading.

1. fast settlement time. normal fiat exchanges can take days or even weeks to credit or fulfill fiat transfers. USDT can be deposited and withdrawn in a matter of minutes.

2. chinese traders need fiat hedging instruments because the government banned CNY/crypto trading. USDT being the most lax (AML wise) and liquid of all stablecoins, it was the obvious market choice.

3. no KYC requirements on secondary markets. so exchanges like binance, poloniex, kucoin, and chinese exchanges can allow BTC/fiat hedging without verification.

4. the first 3 points reinforce strong demand for USDT markets from traders, making for thick order books. this further draws in more traders who naturally seek out markets with high volume and liquidity.