CoinDCX při útoku na neaktivní peněženky přišel o USDT v hodnotě 15,99 milionu USD; Tether zmrazil 2,2 milionu USD. Burza slíbila ztrátu plně nahradit.
CoinDCX, one of India’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges, has reported a substantial security incident resulting in a $15.99 million loss in USDT after unauthorized activity was detected on October 21. The breach was linked to old wallet addresses that had been inactive following a security issue in July 2025, according to statements from the company.
Funds Lost Through Outdated WalletsThe company identified unusual on-chain activity in its infrastructure, leading to an immediate investigation. CoinDCX reported that the affected wallets were already deactivated after an earlier breach. However, a temporary malfunction in its automated balance consolidation prevented some deposited funds from being transferred promptly to new, secure wallets. As a result, these dormant wallets remained vulnerable, exposing the platform to losses when individuals continued sending assets to outdated addresses.
CoinDCX confirmed that the entire amount lost would be reimbursed by the company, assuring users that current wallets and trading operations have not been compromised. The exchange emphasized that user funds remain safe and that withdrawals and other platform operations are unaffected by the breach.
CoinDCX stated that the company would “compensate for the entire $15.99 million loss,” highlighting that all trading and withdrawal services continue without disruption, and current wallets are secure.
The firm explained that a short-term technical error in its automatic funds consolidation process left some deposits stranded in old wallet addresses, which ultimately resulted in the loss. CoinDCX pointed out that the affected system had not been in use for months, yet customers still occasionally sent digital assets to these obsolete addresses.
This incident demonstrates the importance of updating and monitoring inactive wallets to prevent risks associated with outdated crypto infrastructure.
Mini dictionary: CoinDCX is a major Indian cryptocurrency exchange offering trading and investment services in digital assets to millions of users.
Firm Recovers Partial Funds Through BlacklistingBlockchain analytics firm AMLBot reported that $2.2 million from the stolen funds was successfully frozen after Tether, the issuer behind USDT, blacklisted the wallets associated with the hack. Tether’s ability to restrict transactions from compromised wallets played a key role in limiting further circulation of the stolen USDT.
MetricValueTotal USDT lost$15.99 millionUSDT frozen$2.2 millionPercentage recovered13.8%Freezing the funds has prevented them from being moved or traded on exchanges. However, CoinDCX clarified that the frozen assets will only be considered recovered once their return is verified. The exchange continues efforts to trace the remaining assets and work with external partners to secure additional recoveries.
The blacklisting led to $2.2 million being frozen, which represents about 13.8% of the lost amount, though CoinDCX noted that not all of these funds have yet been returned.
Security Implications for the Crypto SectorThe breach highlights vulnerabilities that can emerge when old wallet addresses are not properly retired or monitored. Industry experts stress that exchanges must vigilantly track obsolete wallets and proactively notify users to prevent accidental deposits to addresses no longer under secure management.
The role of stablecoin issuers like Tether in combating illicit activities is underscored by their ability to freeze suspicious funds, yet this step does not guarantee full recovery for affected platforms.
CoinDCX reaffirmed its position that all losses will be covered by the company, and the firm will continue to keep users informed about any additional developments regarding the hack or recovery of funds.
Tether 23. dubna 2026 uvedl, že pomohl zmrazit USDT v hodnotě 344 milionů USD na dvou adresách; samotný soukromý klíč tak nezaručuje možnost stablecoiny převést.
A blocked stablecoin remains visible in your wallet, but you can no longer transfer it. Circle can indeed block an address for USDC and EURC, even if you alone hold the private key. Tether applies the same principle to USDT. On April 23, 2026, it announced having contributed to freezing 344 million dollars on two addresses.
In brief
$344 million: on April 23, 2026, Tether said it had helped freeze this amount in USDT.
More than $4.4 billion: the total Tether attributed, as of April 23, 2026, to freezes carried out with law enforcement.
7 roles: that’s how many the USDC contract defines, all controlled by Circle, including the one that blocks an address.
5 business days: Circle’s indicative redemption timeline in Europe, once checks are complete.
Blocked stablecoin: the private key does not command the contract
A stablecoin like USDC is not stored in your wallet. It is a balance recorded in a smart contract, managed by its issuer. Your private key allows you to sign a transfer. However, it is the contract that decides whether to execute it.
Yet this contract provides several roles reserved for Circle. Its technical documentation on GitHub lists seven, including two that directly act on transfers. First, the “blacklister” role prevents any transfer to or from an address. Then, the “pauser” role can suspend all transfers in case of a serious flaw or compromised key.
With a blocked stablecoin, your address can neither send nor receive USDC. Your transaction fails, even with a valid signature. The blocking is recorded token by token, and your other cryptos remain usable. Circle can nevertheless target the same address for USDC as for EURC, and on several blockchains.
What Circle and Tether say they block, and why
Circle describes its reasons in its stablecoins access denial policy. The company announces blocking addresses to comply with a law, regulation, or court decision. It also cites government requests related to sanctions. An imminent threat to national security or an urgent law enforcement request may also suffice. Finally, it reserves an exception to protect the security of its network. Its terms of service go further. Circle reserves the right to block, at its sole discretion, an address it believes is linked to illicit activity.
Tether, issuer of USDT, acts in the same way. In its April 23, 2026 press release, it says it helped the US government freeze 344 million dollars. It cites information passed by several US authorities. The title mentions OFAC, the US Treasury service responsible for sanctions. The same day, Tether said it was working with more than 340 law enforcement agencies in 65 countries. Its CEO, Paolo Ardoino, sums up his position as: “USDT is not a haven for illicit activities.”
These amounts come, however, from the issuers themselves. Each blocking and unblocking leaves a public trace on the blockchain. The issuers do not publish the reason.
Blocked stablecoin: a block does not cancel a payment
A block freezes funds, but it erases nothing. The European USDC white paper acknowledges this: “Circle SAS cannot prevent transactions on the blockchain from being irreversible.” A confirmed payment thus remains in the chain’s history.
For a scam victim, the difference matters. If the scammer still holds the USDCs, a block can prevent them from moving them. It does not, however, return them to the victim. Circle’s policy does not provide for blocking at the request of an individual. It targets requests and orders from authorities, as well as network security.
Blocked stablecoin: the right to reimbursement under conditions
The USDC terms, updated October 15, 2026, go further than a simple freeze. They apply to holders located outside the European Economic Area. After an exchange with a blocked address, they consider a specific case: suspected illicit activity, reported to authorities. The European white paper contains an equivalent clause.
In certain circumstances, Circle may deem it necessary to report this suspected illicit activity to authorities, and you could lose all rights associated with your USDCs, including the possibility of obtaining a dollar reimbursement.
The EURC terms, Circle’s euro stablecoin, provide the same loss for its holders. In Europe, the MiCA regulation still guarantees reimbursement at nominal value, at any time. The Circle France reimbursement policy, updated September 15, 2026, reiterates this right. It nevertheless excludes “restricted persons.” Notably targeted are a sanctioned or non-identifiable holder, and residents of sanctioned countries. A suspicious transaction is also sufficient.
For an eligible individual, the procedure goes through a form and identity verification. A European bank account IBAN is also required, capable of receiving dollars for USDC. Circle France then provides a deposit address, then checks the history of received tokens. Payment should not exceed five business days, barring anomalies. However, a blocked address cannot send its USDC to this deposit address. The reimbursement policy does not provide any procedure specific to this case.
Conditions for unblocking
Circle can nevertheless lift a block. The USDC contract provides a dedicated function, which only Circle can call. Its policy mentions two cases where Circle can lift the block. Either an authority confirms the end of the legal obligation, or the security incident no longer justifies the measure.
However, the blocking policy does not describe any recourse for the holder. It also provides no prior warning. In Europe, the white paper allows a complaint to Circle, then referral to the ACPR, the French banking supervisor. However, it excludes from its customer service the loss of tokens held in self-custody. Circle only commits to regularly publishing the total amount of blocked stablecoins.
To find out if you hold a blocked stablecoin, check your address status yourself. On Etherscan, the “isBlacklisted” function of the USDC contract on Ethereum, in the “Read as Proxy” tab, displays this status. Each blockchain has its own contract. Also distinguish this blocking from an account freeze on an exchange platform: in that case, the interlocutor is the platform, not the issuer.
In their October 15, 2026 version, the USDC and EURC terms still allow Circle to block an address. In case of suspected illicit activity, they also provide for the possible loss of the right to reimbursement. Your crypto wallet holds your keys, but these rules fall under each stablecoin’s contract.
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Independent author, specialized in decentralized artificial intelligence and crypto ecosystems. I analyze projects by what they actually do, not by the noise around them. Openly a supporter of the Qubic project: my articles about Qubic and its direct competitors carry a disclosure.
Utexo 28. listopadu 2026 veřejně spustí USDT na síti Bitcoin prostřednictvím partnerských peněženek a burz. Token bude kryt USDT0 uzamčeným na síti Arbitrum.
Utexo will launch its Bitcoin-based USDT publicly on November 28.
Exchanges, wallets and trading firms are already testing it on Bitcoin Signet.
Each token is backed by USDT0 locked on Arbitrum, not by new Tether reserves.
Lightning Network support is planned for early 2027.
Utexo, a Bitcoin infrastructure company whose seed round was co-led by Tether, will open its Bitcoin-based USDT to the public on November 28, 2026. The company set the date as it opened early access to Utexo Mint, where professional operators can now mint, transfer and redeem the token on Bitcoin’s Signet test network, The Defiant reported. The token is a bridged version of USDT rather than a new issuance by Tether, and the rollout returns the largest dollar stablecoin to the chain where it first appeared in 2014.
Only Exchanges and Trading Desks Get In Before November 28
Utexo is onboarding exchanges, wallets, market makers, OTC desks and trading firms, and retail users have no direct minting access during the test phase. Approved operators test three functions on Signet: issuing USDT on Bitcoin, sending it confidentially and redeeming it. The November release will reach users through partner wallets and exchanges, with Lightning Network support scheduled for the first quarter of 2027.
The date is a company target. Utexo has not published a full list of launch partners, so the number of platforms that will be live on day one is still unknown.
Every Bitcoin USDT Unit Sits on USDT0 Locked in Arbitrum
The token works on a lock-and-mint basis. According to Utexo’s technical documentation, an operator locks USDT0, the cross-chain version of USDT, in a bridge contract on Arbitrum, and the system issues the same amount on Bitcoin. USDT sent from Ethereum, Tron, Polygon PoS or Plasma is first converted to USDT0 through LayerZero and routed to Arbitrum. Burning the Bitcoin-side tokens releases the collateral.
How USDT moves onto Bitcoin
1
Deposit
USDT from Ethereum, Tron, Polygon or Plasma is converted to USDT0 on Arbitrum
2
Lock
USDT0 is locked in the bridge contract and verified before signing
3
Mint
The same amount is issued on Bitcoin via RGB; burning it releases the collateral
This design ties Bitcoin settlement to an Ethereum layer-2 network. Holders depend on the bridge contract, the signing infrastructure and the collateral on Arbitrum. Utexo says minting runs inside Trusted Execution Environments on AWS Nitro Enclaves, isolated environments that the server operator cannot alter, and each mint is signed only after the Arbitrum deposit is final. The company also reports an audit by Oxorio, but the full report has not been published on its product page.
RGB Hides Amounts From the Public, Not From Compliance Teams
RGB anchors assets to Bitcoin but keeps most transaction data off the blockchain. Under its client-side validation model, sender and receiver store and verify the transfer data themselves, and Bitcoin records only a cryptographic commitment. Tether said in August 2025 that this model makes USDT transfers on Bitcoin faster, cheaper and more private than storing token data on-chain.
Outside observers cannot see amounts or counterparties. That does not make the system anonymous. Utexo reportedly works with Crystal Intelligence on anti-money-laundering monitoring, and co-founder Viktor Ihnatiuk has described a mechanism that blocks flagged funds from being redeemed through participating services. For OTC desks moving large blocks, the appeal is that trade sizes stay hidden from competitors while compliance controls remain in place.
From Omni in 2014 to Lightning in 2027
USDT started on Bitcoin’s Omni Layer, then moved to Ethereum and Tron as lower fees pulled activity away. Tether ended Omni support in August 2023, citing lack of demand, and two years later announced plans to return through RGB.
2014
USDT launches on Bitcoin through the Omni Layer
August 2023
Tether stops supporting USDT on Omni
August 2025
Tether announces USDT on RGB
March 2026
Utexo raises $7.5 million
October 22, 2026
Early access opens on Bitcoin Signet
November 28, 2026
Public launch through partner wallets and exchanges
Q1 2027
Planned Lightning Network integration
A 0.1% Fee and a 100 USDT Cap for Unverified Accounts
Utexo closed a $7.5 million seed round in March, co-led by Tether, Big Brain Holdings and Portal Ventures, with Franklin Templeton, Maven11 Capital, Fulgur Ventures and Flow Traders among the participants. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said at the time that Bitcoin had always been central to the company’s long-term plans for USDT.
The company sells infrastructure, not a consumer app. Exchanges and wallets connect through an API instead of building their own RGB and Lightning systems, and Utexo charges for minting. A recent update to its developer documentation lists a launch commission of 0.1% plus a 0.5 USDT base fee, before network and LayerZero costs. A $100,000 mint would cost about $100.50. Unverified accounts can mint up to 100 USDT.
450 Interested Firms, No Named Partners and Tron’s Head Start
Tron carries a large share of global USDT transfers and has years of wallet and exchange integrations.
USDT on Bitcoin (Utexo)
Backing: USDT0 locked on Arbitrum
Visibility: Confidential transfers
Stage: Testing on Signet
Exchange support: Partners not disclosed
USDT on Tron
Backing: Issued directly by Tether
Visibility: Public on-chain records
Stage: Established since 2019
Exchange support: Broad
BTC-Backed Loans and Direct Swaps Depend on Launch Liquidity
If enough USDT reaches Bitcoin, holders could swap BTC for dollars without leaving the network or using wrapped Bitcoin on Ethereum. Utexo also plans lending products that accept native BTC as collateral for USDT loans. Neither service has a published start date, rate or liquidity figure, and the company has not said how much USDT it expects to circulate on Bitcoin at launch. For exchanges, joining means handling RGB data, connecting to the mint and redemption flow and accepting exposure to the Arbitrum collateral.
Utexo is also using pricing to pull in early volume. In a post on HackerNoon, Ihnatiuk wrote that end users of partner wallets will pay no fees on USDT settlements during the launch phase as part of an incentive program. Utexo has not said how long that period will last, and what wallets charge once it ends will decide whether payment flows stay on Bitcoin or drift back to Tron.
Alex is a financial markets journalist and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, and he's spent close to ten years trying to answer one stubborn question: what's really driving this?
It started in 2016, when Bitcoin refused to make sense to him - and rather than shrug, he stayed with it until it did. That patience became his method. He's less interested in what an asset is doing today than in the plumbing behind it: how liquidity flows, where risk hides, what a chart is quietly telling you that the headline isn't. That lens eventually stretched well past crypto into traditional markets, because the same forces - fear, leverage, incentives, timing - show up everywhere once you know how to look.
Most coverage, in his view, insults the reader by stopping at the surface. Price up, price down, moving on. He'd rather leave someone genuinely understanding a move than merely informed that it happened.
His path into markets ran through a Tourism degree at New Bulgarian University - proof, maybe, that curiosity beats credentials. With more than 200 deep analyses and over 10,000 articles behind him, he still walks away from most trading days having learned something he didn't know that morning.
Tether has secured commitments from 15 Bitcoin mining operators, ASIC manufacturers and mining pools to develop and maintain integrations with its Mining Development Kit (MDK), an open-source framework built to standardize how applications interact with mining infrastructure.
The 15 initial commitments include mining and infrastructure companies such as Bitdeer, BITMAIN, Canaan, MicroBT, Foundry Digital, Luxor Technology, F2Pool and OCEAN, Tether said Saturday.
The initiative aims to reduce fragmentation across the industry and create a common foundation for AI-driven automation, allowing developers to build applications and autonomous systems that work across different hardware and software environments without repeatedly engineering vendor-specific integrations.
Mining facilities can contain thousands of machines from multiple manufacturers, with equipment connected to different pools and managed through separate software. These systems often lack interoperability, forcing operators to manage them individually and developers to rebuild integrations whenever they work with a new vendor or platform.
Tether said the problem limits automation as operators explore using AI to monitor equipment, identify faults, optimize performance and eventually take autonomous action. MDK is designed to give these applications a consistent way to understand and control different systems.
Under the framework, each participating company will maintain an MDK Worker that translates its existing hardware, pool or system interface into a common format.
Companies can choose which functions to expose without replacing their technology or giving up control, according to Tether. Applications built on MDK can then operate across supported systems through the same interface, reducing dependence on individual vendors and allowing developers to extend their tools to more of the mining industry as additional Workers become available.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said software would increasingly operate physical infrastructure rather than simply report on it, requiring a common way for different machines to communicate.
Tether’s QVAC mining agent is already running directly on MDK as an early example of an AI application using the shared layer.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Aave na Ethereum V3 Core snížilo práh využití USDT z 94 % na 92 %, aby se úrokové sazby zvyšovaly rychleji. Při 94% využití by teoretická výpůjční sazba vzrostla ze 4,5 % na 7 % ročně.
Aave has just changed the borrowing conditions of USDT on its Ethereum V3 Core crypto market. Since October 21, rates increase faster as soon as 92% of liquidity is borrowed, compared to 94% previously. At a utilization level of 94%, the theoretical rate thus goes from 4.5% to 7%. The decentralized finance protocol aims to preserve more funds available for withdrawals.
In Brief
Aave lowers the optimal USDT utilization threshold from 94% to 92%.
At 94% utilization, the theoretical borrowing rate rises from 4.5% to 7%.
The change creates an additional theoretical buffer of 57.8 million USDT.
Aave Makes Crypto Borrowing in USDT More Expensive
The change took effect on October 21, at Ethereum block 26,241,799. Aave regularly adjusts the parameters of its markets to control risks. In July, the protocol had already considered removing several crypto reserves that had become unprofitable.
This time, the changes directly affect users who borrow USDT. The mechanism remains quite simple. On Aave, the borrowing rate depends on the proportion of deposits already used by borrowers. When liquidity starts to run low, interest rises to discourage new loans and encourage repayments.
The threshold from which this increase becomes particularly rapid falls from 94% to 92%. The other curve parameters remain unchanged. The base rate remains zero, the first slope at 4.5%, and the second at 10%.
At 94% utilization, the old configuration yielded an annual rate of 4.5%. With the new parameters, it reaches 7%. For a steady loan of one million USDT, this 2.5-point gap would represent an additional 25,000 USDT in interest over a full year if rates remained unchanged. Borrowings are not blocked beyond 92%, they simply become more expensive.
57.8 Million USDT of Potential Liquidity
LlamaRisk, responsible for monitoring several risks on Aave, recommended this change after examining the protocol’s crypto reserves. Its analysis covered about 2.89 billion USDT deposited versus 2.48 billion borrowed. The utilization rate was then 85.6%.
With the old 94% threshold, Aave planned to keep about 173.5 million USDT unborrowed when the market reached its optimal level. Switching to 92% raises this theoretical margin to 231.4 million.
That is an additional 57.8 million USDT. However, beware: Aave did not inject this amount into its reserves. It is a margin calculated based on the new parameters. For it to materialize, some borrowers must repay their positions or new depositors must bring funds.
The distinction matters particularly in crypto finance, where withdrawals depend directly on available liquidity.
Aave already knows the consequences of strong withdrawal demand. After the crisis caused by the KelpDAO hack, the protocol recorded 8.45 billion dollars worth of withdrawals in less than 48 hours. The episode fueled discussions about risk management and the resilience of major DeFi protocols.
Crypto Users Are Not Paying 7% Yet
The new curve does not mean that all USDT borrowers now pay 7% interest. This rate corresponds to a hypothetical situation where 94% of liquidity would be used. On October 23, Aave showed about 2.89 billion USDT deposited, 2.50 billion variable debt, and 391.4 million USDT actually available in its Ethereum V3 Core reserve.
The utilization rate was around 86.45%. At this level, the variable borrowing rate reached 4.23%, while liquidity providers earned about 3.29%. Crypto users thus retain conditions relatively close to those seen before the change, as long as utilization remains below the new threshold.
The protocol continues its development in parallel. Its DAO had notably considered a crypto app combining stablecoins, savings, and lending. This expansion requires sufficiently liquid reserves to absorb withdrawal requests, including during periods of high activity. Aave now prefers to raise rates earlier rather than wait until almost all available USDT are borrowed. For lenders and borrowers alike, the 92% threshold thus becomes a new benchmark to monitor.
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Enseignante et ingénieure IT, Lydie découvre le Bitcoin en 2022 et plonge dans l’univers des cryptomonnaies. Elle vulgarise des sujets complexes, décrypte les enjeux du Web3 et défend une vision d’un futur numérique ouvert, inclusif et décentralisé.
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Tether (USDT) on BNB Chain recorded $3.69T in 30-day transfers, about 2.5 times Tron and Ethereum combined, per rwa.xyz, despite a far smaller supply.
$USDT on @BNBCHAIN recorded $3.69T across 471 million transfers over the past 30 days, about 2.5 times the combined total of Tron and Ethereum, according to data from rwa.xyz. The figure places BNB Chain well ahead of the two networks that hold most of Tether's supply.
Small supply, very high turnoverThe activity comes from a much smaller base. USDT on BNB Chain stands at $9.18B, compared with roughly $92B on Tron and $75B on Ethereum. On rwa.xyz's asset page, the BNB Chain supply is listed at about $9.18B, tagged as a bridged token rather than a native one.
That gap implies very different usage patterns. Each dollar of USDT on BNB Chain changes hands about 400 times a month, compared with roughly 8 to 9 times on Tron and Ethereum. The two larger networks hold far more supply, but much of it appears to sit in wallets, custody and exchange balances for longer periods.
Transaction counts point the same way. Data from the ACHIVX stablecoin scanner, which tracks settled USDT flows, shows BNB Chain carrying the most USDT transfers of any network at much smaller average sizes than Tron or Ethereum. That pattern is consistent with high-frequency, low-value activity rather than large settlement transfers.
What the totals includeThe headline numbers count every transfer, including trading bots and contract activity. They are a measure of onchain movement, not of unique users or organic payment demand, and repeated transfers of the same funds are counted each time.
There is also a technical caveat on what "USDT on BNB Chain" means. According to an explainer citing Tether data, Tether-issued supply on BNB Smart Chain is $0, and the BEP-20 token there is Binance-Peg BSC-USD. Aggregators such as rwa.xyz classify it as bridged USDT, which is why it appears under the USDT label.
Tron remains the largest USDT network by supply. Datawallet, citing DefiLlama, put Tron's USDT at about $92.4 billion on 1 October 2026, roughly half of global USDT in circulation. The BNB Chain figures show that supply and activity can diverge sharply, and that raw transfer volume says little on its own about where stablecoin capital actually sits.
Sources
RWA.xyz: Tether USDt asset data
ACHIVX: USDT transfers by network
Datawallet: TRC20 USDT market data
Senátor Richard Blumenthal vyšetřuje platby Tetheru poradenské firmě Nxum, kterou Bo Hines spoluzaložil. Hines je někdejší poradce Bílého domu pro kryptoměny.
Former White House crypto adviser Bo Hines, who is CEO of Tether's U.S. arm, is under scrutiny from a Senate Democrat for payments made to his consulting firm. (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk)Summary
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal keeps digging into Tether on behalf of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, this time looking at recent reports that a firm owned by former White House crypto adviser Bo Hines took millions while he was still helping shape stablecoin policy. Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, sent letters to Tether and the firm, Nxum, that was co-founded by Hines, who took a job as Tether’s top U.S. executive after leaving the White House. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal has added another Tether probe to the many irons he has in crypto fires, this time demanding answers about reported payments the company made to a firm owned by Bo Hines — the former White House crypto adviser who is now in charge of the U.S. arm of Tether.
Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent letters Thursday to Tether and to the consulting company Hines started with his father and another partner, Nxum Group.
"The highly unusual terms and nature of Tether’s business relationship with both Nxum and Bo Hines raise alarming ethical and legal concerns, indicating that Tether was likely well aware of the illegality and impropriety of issuing payments to a current White House official with such a direct role in shaping cryptocurrency legislation that was instrumental to its business," Blumenthal wrote to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Nxum had received large payments for consulting work for Tether when Hines was still advising President Donald Trump and his administration on crypto policy (including on stablecoin issuers significant to Tether). Blumenthal requested details of those business arrangements.
“Tether is aware of the allegations reported in The Wall Street Journal that form the basis of Senator Blumenthal’s letter,” the company said in a statement. “External counsel previously conducted an in-depth internal investigation into the matter, which found no evidence of wrongdoing.”
CoinDesk had been first to report earlier that Hines' company — which had little track record or experience in politics — was making millions of dollars as the main campaign-advertising provider for a political action committee associated with Tether.
Hines' family firm, Nxum, has recently hired another official that worked as a White House crypto adviser, Harry Jung. The office that advised Trump on crypto issues has since gone vacant, with the departure of Patrick Witt, who had replaced Hines as its executive director.
Blumenthal has been focusing significant attention on crypto, including on Trump's memecoin, crypto backers of the president's projects, Trump family crypto firm World Liberty Financial, activities at Binance and especially on Tether. He issued a report on its financial connections to Iran, and he more recently demanded answers about Tether's connection to its U.S. financial partner, Cantor Fitzgerald.
Tether's Ardoino criticized the senator's work this week, saying Blumenthal ignored important information and shared his report with the press before giving the company a look or a chance to respond.
Though Blumenthal's party has been in the Senate minority during Trump's time in office, the still-narrow odds of Democrats taking back that chamber have improved in recent weeks. If Blumenthal returns to chair the investigations subcommittee, it would grant him significantly greater powers to subpoena and control the agenda, and he's made it clear that crypto would be high on his list of topic areas. Prediction market Kalshi gives Democrats a 69% chance at the moment.
Read More: Top Democrat among Senate investigators probes ties between Cantor Fitzgerald, Tether
UPDATE (October 22, 2026, 23:36 UTC): Adds comment from Tether.
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Geneva, Switzerland, October 22, 2026 — TRON reinforced its position as a leading blockchain network for stablecoin settlement in the third quarter of 2026, with trillions in transaction volume, record USDT supply, growing payment card adoption, and the debut of the first U.S. spot staked TRX exchange-traded fund (ETF), according to independent research reports from CoinDesk Data and Nansen.
CoinDesk
CoinDesk’s TRON Network Quarterly Report: Q3 2026 provides a technical assessment of the TRON network from July to September 2026. The findings span network and ecosystem developments, core on-chain metrics, and DeFi activity across lending and decentralized exchanges (DEX).
Key Insights from CoinDesk:
Stablecoin Settlement: TRON accounted for approximately 73% of stablecoin transfer volume at the end of Q3 2026, the highest share among blockchain networks. Stablecoin Market Share & USDT Growth: USDT on TRON reached an all-time high of just over $92.7 billion in Q3 2026, lifting TRON’s share of the total USDT market to a 2026 high of 50.6% in mid-September. TRON’s share of total stablecoin market capitalization also rose to 30.2%. Crypto-Card Payments & DeFi Activity: TRON ranked first among chains by crypto-card payment volume in Q3 2026, capturing a 27.5% share worth approximately $638 million as total card volumes grew 60.5% QoQ to $2.32 billion. Total value locked (TVL) on the network rose 26.6% QoQ to $5.7 billion with lending the largest sector at 68%, and JustLend active loans up from $127M to $199M. Read the full report from CoinDesk here.
Nansen
Nansen’s TRON Quarterly Report: Q3 2026 examines the network’s settlement scale and on-chain behavior over the quarter. It covers stablecoin settlement volume, transaction and address activity, institutional developments, and how users and transactions are distributed across labeled entities on TRON.
Key Insights from Nansen:
Stablecoin Settlement at Scale: TRON settled $2.21 trillion in stablecoins in Q3 2026, with average daily settlement rising 3.9% to $24.05 billion. Cumulative transaction volume on the network also surpassed $30 trillion as of September 23. User Growth & On-Chain Activity: TRON’s user base continued to grow in Q3 2026, with average rolling monthly active addresses up 9.8% QoQ to 18 million, while the network processed an average of 11.68 million successful transactions per day. Expanded Institutional Access: Canary Capital launched the Canary Staked TRX ETF (TRXS), the first U.S. spot staked TRX ETF, on September 9, and TRON DAO rang the Cboe closing bell on September 29 to mark its debut. Anchorage Digital also added native TRX staking and TRC-20 custody as the second phase of its TRON integration. Read the full report from Nansen here.
Across both reports, TRON’s third quarter showed a network growing in volume and in reach at the same time. Stablecoin settlement continued to climb, everyday spending through crypto cards accelerated, and new regulated products gave institutions a direct path to TRX. With that foundation in place, TRON enters the final quarter of 2026 as a settlement network that is increasingly accessible to retail users and institutions alike.
About TRON DAO
TRON DAO is a community-governed DAO dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet via blockchain technology and dApps.
Founded in September 2017, the TRON blockchain has experienced significant growth since its MainNet launch in May 2018. Today, TRON hosts the largest circulating supply of USD Tether (USDT) stablecoin, which currently exceeds $94 billion. As of October 2026, the TRON blockchain has recorded over 410 million in total user accounts, more than 15 billion in total transactions, and over $28 billion in total value locked (TVL), based on TRONSCAN. Recognized as the global settlement layer for stablecoin transactions and everyday purchases with proven success, TRON is “Moving Trillions, Empowering Billions.”
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Tether vedl předseedové investiční kolo bolivijského fintechu Peso s cílem rozšířit infrastrukturu pro platby v USD₮ v Bolívii, Brazílii, Kolumbii a Argentině.
Tether Invests in Peso to Expand USD₮ Payment Infrastructure Across Latin America
21 October 2026 – Tether, the largest company in the digital asset industry, led the pre-seed round in Peso, a Bolivian fintech company that provides access to payments, savings, and investments across Latin America. The investment aims to help Peso expand access to fast, low-cost, stablecoin-powered payments in the region while accelerating the use of USD₮ in everyday transactions across retail, institutions, e-commerce, food delivery, ride-hailing, and banking rails.
Peso provides a global USD₮ account that lets users save, spend, invest, and send money across borders from a single app. The company also brings USD₮ payments into the digital services people use every day, starting with Yango, a digital services platform operating in Bolivia, where users can now order food and pay in USD₮ directly in the app. In addition, Peso offers point-of-sale acceptance and virtual accounts in the user’s own name that connect USD₮ directly to the full Bolivian banking system via QR and ACH rails, enabling users to move seamlessly between stablecoins and local fiat.
The investment aligns with Tether’s broader mission to bridge the gap between traditional finance and digital assets by supporting platforms that address real-world financial challenges with stable, liquid, blockchain-powered payment solutions. In doing so, Tether aims to advance the global use of stablecoins and make them more practical and accessible.
The funding will support Peso’s expansion of local on- and off-ramps across its active markets in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina, deepening USD₮’s role as the settlement layer connecting local currencies. It will also accelerate Peso’s broader product roadmap, including its merchant-facing point-of-sale network and virtual account infrastructure, delivering more transparent and accessible financial services to users and merchants across the region.
“Peso is building the kind of everyday-spend infrastructure that turns USD₮ from a savings tool into a payments channel people rely on daily. This aligns with our goal to promote financial inclusion and ensure access to faster, easier, and more interoperable financial services,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether. “By supporting Peso’s growth across the region, we aim to create a new standard for stablecoin-powered solutions.”
“Latin Americans are already using USD₮; what was missing was the infrastructure to spend it in everyday life without friction. This investment lets us accelerate what we have been building: making it possible for anyone in the region to open an account in minutes and use USD₮ daily, from paying by QR code to sending money across borders. That a company like Tether chose a Bolivian startup for this investment is a recognition of the talent and execution capacity that exists here, and we are proud to have them as collaborators at this stage,” said Alejandro Terán, CEO and Co-Founder of Peso.
OCC dokončil prováděcí pravidla k zákonu GENIUS Act pro emitenty platebních stablecoinů, která vstoupí v účinnost 18. ledna 2027. Otázku výnosů a odměn ponechal k posouzení v jednotlivých případech.
On January 18, 2027, every firm that wants to put a dollar-pegged stablecoin in front of American users will answer to a single federal rulebook for the first time. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency published that rulebook on Tuesday, October 21, 2026, in a final rule that locks in reserve, redemption, capital, and risk-management standards for payment stablecoin issuers — while the industry’s loudest fight, over whether issuers may keep paying yield or rewards, stays a case-by-case question the agency declined to settle in one stroke.
The final rule and its three companion bulletins take effect the same day as the GENIUS Act itself, January 18, 2027. The stakes are written in the market’s own numbers: Tether’s USDT carried a $182.8 billion market capitalization on October 21, and Circle’s USDC another $72.1 billion, according to CoinGecko data — more than $254 billion in dollar substitutes that, from that date forward, must sit inside the framework the OCC just finished. Put against a total cryptocurrency market value of roughly $2.88 trillion, the two largest dollar stablecoins alone are about 8.9 percent of the entire asset class.
Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent framed the moment in historic terms. “The GENIUS Act marks a watershed moment in American finance, further cementing the United States as the crypto capital of the world. Just as President Abraham Lincoln’s National Currency Act of 1863 established a national framework for bank-issued currency, the GENIUS Act establishes a federal framework for payment stablecoins in the digital age,” Bessent said in the agency’s release.
Eighteen Months From Bill to Binding Rule The rule did not arrive quickly. The GENIUS Act was enacted on July 18, 2025, and its implementing framework has been under construction ever since. The OCC published its notice of proposed rulemaking on March 2, 2026, closed the formal comment window on May 1, and kept accepting late comments through July 1. By the time the final rule landed, roughly 328 comments had stacked up from crypto firms, trade groups, banks, academics, and individuals — a signal of how much the industry had riding on the details.
The gap between enactment and effective date spans 18 months, but the sharper arithmetic sits in the tail. The OCC finalized its rule 233 days after proposing it, and issuers now have exactly 89 days from publication to bring operations into line before the framework becomes binding. That compressed runway is the piece that will occupy compliance teams between now and January.
For readers new to the statute, what the GENIUS Act actually requires is a three-category licensing system: bank subsidiaries, federally qualified nonbank issuers, and state-qualified issuers under a $10 billion ceiling. The OCC’s part of that architecture is now finished, apart from the anti-money-laundering chapter still sitting in a separate rulemaking.
The provision that drew the most heat never left the statute: a payment stablecoin issuer may not pay “interest or yield to a payment stablecoin holder solely in connection with the holding, use, or retention of such payment stablecoin.” The proposal tried to police evasion with a rebuttable presumption that certain affiliate and third-party payments violated the ban. Commenters tore at it from both directions.
Some wanted the presumption broadened, or argued that a presumption was inadequate and that certain indirect payments should be conclusively banned. Others pushed to narrow or delete it entirely, warning that a presumption this wide could sweep in ordinary payments to related third parties that had nothing to do with rewarding holders for simply sitting on a token. This is not a theoretical squabble — it is the difference between Coinbase, PayPal, or Kraken being able to keep marketing a rewards rate on a stablecoin balance and having to redesign the product outright.
The OCC’s release does not hand down a blanket answer on existing rewards programs. The rule keeps the statutory ban intact and leaves the application of it to be assessed on the facts of each arrangement, with the agency free to update the regulations as issuer business models evolve. For the firms that spent the past two years building rewards features around stablecoin holdings, that is the closest thing to a live question this “final” rule could have produced.
Reserves, Redemption, and the Run the OCC Was Warned About Away from the yield fight, the final rule’s edits read as a deliberate loosening. The OCC made reserve asset management more flexible than proposed while keeping core liquidity, diversification, and concentration requirements so issuers “remain sufficiently reserved and capable of meeting redemption requests in a timely manner.” Capital and operational backstop requirements are more detailed than the proposal but simplified, and risk-management standards under new §15.13 scale with the nature, scope, and risk of an issuer’s activities rather than applying one block to everyone. The final rule also accommodates special purpose vehicle issuers structured to protect the rights of payment stablecoin holders.
Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould put the emphasis on the practical floor the rule builds. “We are providing a clear, practical framework for payment stablecoin innovation, with strong standards for reserve backing, redemption, and risk management,” Gould said.
But the comment record carried a warning the agency itself summarized: several commenters argued against any freeze or extension of redemption during a spike in withdrawal requests, on the ground that such provisions could accelerate a run. That is the paradox at the center of stablecoin regulation — the tools meant to slow a panic can themselves be read as a signal that redemptions might not be honored. The final rule’s treatment of redemption timing, down to a definition of “business day” that excludes weekends and federal holidays, shows the OCC working through exactly that tension.
What Still Has No Final Answer For a document titled “final,” the OCC left a striking amount of runway. The Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money-laundering, and sanctions chapters are being written in a separate rulemaking, and the agency will announce separately when it begins accepting applications and waiver requests from prospective issuers. The final rule also narrows the definition of “customer” to direct counterparties of the issuer, so a holder who bought a stablecoin through a third-party distributor is not a customer of the issuer until they redeem directly — a change that quietly redraws who is owed what protections.
The honest read is that January 18, 2027 is the beginning of compliance, not the end of the argument. The Treasury’s own comment window on its parallel Section 3 proposal closed on October 19 with the industry still litigating the same questions the OCC just heard. What to watch is concrete: the separate BSA/AML final rule, the OCC’s application-processing announcement, and the first public moves by Tether, Circle, and the exchanges to explain whether their existing yield and rewards features survive contact with the new text.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
Tether vedl investiční kolo série A ve výši 15 milionů USD pro Mural, infrastrukturu pro platby a zajištění souladu s předpisy, která se využívá také při transakcích agentů AI.
Tether led a $15 million Series A funding round for Mural, bringing the financial infrastructure company’s total funding to $28 million.Founded by former Palantir engineers, Mural helps companies manage payments, accounts, identity verification and regulatory compliance across banking networks and blockchains.The investment advances Tether’s push into agentic finance as companies develop safeguards that allow AI systems to execute transactions on behalf of people and businesses.Tether led a $15 million funding round in Mural, expanding the stablecoin issuer’s investments in technology that enables AI agents to handle payments.
The Series A round, which included participation from North Island Ventures and existing investors, brings New York-based Mural's total funding to $28 million, according to an emailed announcement on Tuesday.
Mural, founded by former Palantir (PLTR) engineers, provides fintechs and other platforms with infrastructure for managing accounts, payments, identity verification and regulatory compliance across traditional banking networks and blockchains. Its customers include payroll platform Deel and browser developer Opera.
The funding comes as financial technology companies explore “agentic finance,” in which AI systems can initiate and execute transactions on behalf of individuals or businesses.
Mural's infrastructure allows companies to set transaction limits, restrict counterparties and require additional approvals for larger payments, addressing questions around authorization and accountability when autonomous software moves money.
“As agents start moving money, that connection to the banks, payment networks and compliance systems the world still runs on becomes essential,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in the statement.
The investment reflects Tether's growing interest in infrastructure beyond stablecoin issuance, particularly as programmable payments emerge as a potential use case for AI-powered financial services.
AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.
Tether’s USDT shed nearly $1 billion in market capitalization over five days in mid-October 2026, a contraction that is putting pressure on Bitcoin’s recovery at a delicate moment.
The numbers behind the contraction On-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant tracked the $1 billion decline as Bitcoin was attempting to rebuild upward momentum. The broader picture, drawn from data compiled by Crystal Intelligence, is harder to ignore.
USDT balances held across 19 major exchanges and lending platforms fell by $4.6 billion between early July and October 1, 2026. Over that same period, those platforms absorbed approximately $1.9 billion in competing stablecoins, primarily USDC and RLUSD, suggesting traders did not exit the market entirely but did rotate away from Tether specifically.
Bybit illustrated that rotation most sharply. The exchange shed $1.66 billion in USDT while simultaneously adding $315 million in RLUSD, making it the single platform with the largest net USDT outflow in the dataset.
Overall USDT supply declined about 0.4%, or approximately $647 million, through September 2026, leaving the total near $184 billion. By October 20, that figure had slipped further to around $183 billion.
Why stablecoin supply and Bitcoin price are connected The 2024 and 2025 Bitcoin rallies coincided with repeated multi-billion-dollar expansions in USDT’s market cap. Each wave of new issuance effectively refueled demand at a systemic level, giving traders and institutions the dry powder to push prices higher.
The $1.9 billion that flowed into USDC and RLUSD during the same period that USDT lost $4.6 billion at exchanges is a gap, not a replacement. Competing stablecoins are growing, but they are not yet moving in volumes large enough to make the overall liquidity picture neutral.
What traders and investors should watch First, watch net USDT issuance. Tether mints and redeems USDT based on client demand. A return to net minting, especially in large tranches, would indicate that institutional and retail demand for stablecoin liquidity is recovering.
Second, monitor the USDC and RLUSD inflows at major exchanges. If competing stablecoins continue gaining ground, the question becomes whether their combined growth can offset USDT’s retreat and keep overall liquidity conditions stable for Bitcoin trading pairs.
Third, keep an eye on Bybit’s balance sheet in particular. As the platform with the largest single USDT outflow in this dataset, its trajectory will serve as a leading indicator for whether exchange-level stablecoin rotation is accelerating or stabilizing.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Tether Invests in Tenstorrent to Expand Access to Open AI Computing Infrastructure
Investment supports Tether’s ambition to make AI more accessible by giving developers and businesses greater control over the technology powering it 20 October, 2026 – Tether Capital today announced its participation in the $1.5 billion Series E funding round of Tenstorrent, an AI computing company developing high-performance processors, systems and software. The round values Tenstorrent at $6.2 billion and advances Tether’s efforts to support open AI infrastructure, giving more people and businesses the ability to develop and run AI systems independently.
As artificial intelligence becomes more widely used, access to the computing power needed to run it remains concentrated among a small number of technology companies. Developers and businesses often depend on expensive, proprietary hardware and cloud services, limiting their ability to choose how and where their AI systems operate.
Tenstorrent is building an alternative. Led by chip architect Jim Keller, the company develops AI processors, servers, and software designed to give customers more control over their computing infrastructure. Its open-source software allows developers to run advanced AI models locally, while its hardware ranges from individual workstations to large-scale server systems. Tenstorrent also licenses its chip designs to companies developing their own processors, helping expand the options available beyond established hardware providers.
“AI should be something people can build, run and control themselves, without having to rely on a handful of companies for the computing power behind it,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether. “The team at Tenstorrent are developing technology that gives businesses and developers more freedom to choose how they build and deploy AI. We believe open computing infrastructure will be essential to making AI accessible to more people, and we’re excited to support Tenstorrent as it brings that technology to a wider market.”
Tenstorrent will use the new funding to expand production and deployment of its Galaxy server systems, advance its AI and CPU technology, and grow its commercial operations globally. The round saw participation from Tether Capital and other new and existing investors*. Its technology already serves customers developing their own chips, including Samsung and LG, and supports applications ranging from large language models to video generation.
The investment builds on Tether’s broader work to make advanced intelligence more accessible. Through QVAC, its open-source AI platform, Tether is developing technology that allows AI to run directly on users’ devices, reducing dependence on centralized cloud services and giving individuals greater control over their data and computing resources.
The investment builds on Tether’s broader efforts across AI software, robotics and payments. Its QVAC platform is designed to run AI directly on users’ devices. Supporting Tenstorrent extends that focus to the processors and computing systems underpinning AI.
About Tether Capital
Tether Capital is the independent investment arm of Tether, the largest company in the digital assets industry. Based in El Salvador, the company deploys capital from Tether’s profits and excess reserves across a wide range of sectors where technology, infrastructure, and real-world utility intersect.
Its portfolio includes investments in artificial intelligence, financial services, energy, biotechnology, education, and digital media, as well as strategic stakes in industries such as commodities, remittances, and sports and entertainment. Tether Capital supports ventures with long-term potential to improve access, efficiency, and resilience in both emerging and developed markets. Its work supports Tether Group’s broader mission to strengthen decentralized systems, promote infrastructure resilience, and expand real-world access to open, transparent technologies.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has challenged Senator Richard Blumenthal’s Iran sanctions report, saying the company has frozen flagged addresses an average of four weeks before official designations since 2023.
Summary
Four weeks was Tether’s average lead over official designations since 2023, according to Ardoino. 99% of reported addresses were frozen before Chainalysis labeled them, the chief executive claimed. 84% of 846 Iran-linked wallets used USDT exclusively or nearly exclusively, Senate investigators reported. Blumenthal has requested federal investigations into Tether’s sanctions and anti-money-laundering practices. Paolo Ardoino said in an Oct. 19 post that the comparison covered designations by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing.
Tether cites earlier freezes in its sanctions defense In his Oct. 19 post, Ardoino accused Blumenthal’s analysis of overlooking the timing of Tether’s actions. His four-week figure referred to an average across freezes since 2023, while the separate 99% claim concerned whether Tether acted before Chainalysis applied labels.
Senator Blumenthal's "analysis" of Tether's sanctions report misses that, since 2023, Tether froze on average 4 weeks prior to OFAC & NBCTF official sanction designation and for 99% of the times Tether froze the reported addresses before Chainalysis labelled them.
Tether…
— Paolo Ardoino 🤖 (@paoloardoino) October 19, 2026 Ardoino wrote that “for 99% of the times Tether froze the reported addresses before Chainalysis labelled them.”
He attributed a 94% decline in Iran-linked stablecoin volumes to Tether’s actions and credited the company’s law enforcement partnerships for its response to new threats. The post presented the decline as a result of the issuer’s enforcement work.
The supplied statement does not identify the addresses used to calculate either timing figure, the number of observations, or the period measured for the volume decline. Ardoino’s figures remain company assertions, without an independently examined dataset establishing the averages or the claimed reduction.
The screenshot shows the post was edited on Oct. 19. Its wording challenges the senator’s interpretation of the sanctions record, while presenting the freeze dates, analytics labels, and transaction-volume change as separate measures of Tether’s performance. Ardoino did not claim in the post that the Senate’s entire wallet sample had been frozen.
His response follows the Senate sanctions inquiry, which crypto.news previously reported on Sep. 29. Democratic investigators examined wallets associated with Iran and regional organizations that had been sanctioned or targeted for seizure.
Senate investigators allege delays in blocking wallets Blumenthal’s office reported on Sep. 28 that 84% of the 846 wallets transacted exclusively, or nearly exclusively, in USDT. The release attributed the analysis to Democratic staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
The senator alleged that USDT helped Iranian networks move money across borders and support activities involving the country’s central bank. His office accused Tether of failing to consistently freeze illicit wallets before 2024 and of continuing to miss addresses that should have prompted action.
In its preliminary report, the Democratic staff described a specific set of 39 addresses identified by the Israeli bureau in June 2023 as associated with a Hezbollah money launderer.
According to the report, Tether froze five of those addresses earlier but waited until March 2024 to block the remaining 34. Investigators said more than $34.6 million in USDT left the designated wallets after the seizure notice was published.
The staff included a qualification about its chronology. Footnote 56 says Israeli orders sometimes became public weeks or months after their signature dates, and investigators noted apparent publication dates where available. The report’s allegations concern individual cases as well as the company’s overall compliance practices.
Earlier USDT freezes provide a documented timeline Tether’s Sep. 28 company statement cited nearly $550 million in Iran-linked USDT freezes during 2026. The issuer said it worked from information supplied by U.S. authorities when it helped freeze more than $344 million across two addresses in April.
According to that statement, OFAC added the two addresses to the Central Bank of Iran’s sanctions entry the following day. The company cited a July action involving more than $130 million across four further wallets.
Coverage of the July wallet freezes, published July 15, recorded Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s announcement that OFAC had sanctioned wallets connected to Iran’s central bank. On-chain investigator Specter identified four TRON addresses holding roughly $131 million in USDT.
In its account of the Iran-linked asset freezes, published Sep. 28, the outlet noted that Tether’s announcement did not itemize every freeze included in the approximately $550 million total.
US authorities face an investigation request and a separate asset case Blumenthal referred the Senate findings to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Todd Blanche. His letters requested investigations into potential sanctions and banking-law violations, with enforcement action if officials found breaches.
The senator named the Bank Secrecy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act among the laws he wanted Treasury to consider. The release sets out a request for investigation, without announcing a finding of liability by either department.
Separate reporting on the Iran oil proceeds case, published Sep. 15, described a federal civil forfeiture complaint targeting $61.2 million in USDT held across ten TRON addresses.
According to the cited court records, Tether froze those addresses in June and July 2025. A Sep. 14, 2026 warrant authorized government custody, while the forfeiture complaint sought a court judgment awarding ownership of the assets to the United States. Prosecutors’ allegations about the funds’ connection to Iranian oil sales remained subject to the civil proceeding.
AIsa dokončila rozšířené seedové kolo, v němž Tether a HIVEN vystupovaly jako strategičtí investoři, čímž její celkové financování překročilo 9 milionů USD.
AIsa said it had completed its seed extension round, with Tether and HIVEN joining as strategic investors.
The round brings AIsa’s total funding to more than $9 million. The two new investors joined Alibaba, Tribe Capital, Sumitomo Corporation, Draper Associates, Saison Capital and other backers.
“Enterprise AI agents need trusted information, useful tools and a governed way to transact,” said Jordan Liu, founder and CEO of San Francisco-based AIsa, in a Friday statement. “Our vision is to build the infrastructure that enables agents to discover, access and pay for resources globally, while giving enterprises full control over permissions, spending and transactions. We are excited to welcome Tether and HIVEN as strategic investors as we accelerate the transition from AI assistants to autonomous, production-ready agents.”
Fragmented providers, integrations and billing systems make it difficult for enterprise AI agents to operate effectively in production and manage at scale, according to the statement.
AIsa addresses this by bringing resource discovery, access and transactions into one governed, usage-based network, the Trusted Resource and Transaction Network for Enterprise AI Agents. Its infrastructure connects enterprise agents to external data, AI search, models, APIs, software tools and industry services, combining governed access with usage metering, billing and settlement, the
statement said.
Cointelegraph reported on July 31 that stablecoin issuer Tether generated another multibillion-dollar quarter as income from its US Treasury portfolio continued to bolster earnings.
Tether reported a net operating profit of $1.5 billion for the second quarter, driven primarily by interest earned on US Treasury holdings and repurchase agreements, or short-term loans backed by government securities.
Magazine: Capital starting to rotate back to crypto from AI: Raoul Pal
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.
Studie BIS ukazuje, že zvýšení úrokových sazeb z bankovních vkladů o 1 bazický bod snížilo růst stablecoinů během deseti týdnů přibližně z 15 % na 12 %.
A slight increase in interest rates on bank deposits could slow the growth of stablecoins. This is the finding of a study by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which highlights competition between bank savings and these cryptocurrencies pegged to traditional currencies. However, the effect varies depending on the players: Circle’s USDC appears more sensitive to this competition than Tether’s USDT.
In Brief A one basis point increase in deposit rates reduces stablecoin growth over ten weeks, from 15% to 12% in the main estimate, and down to 6% in an alternative estimate. USDC reacts more than USDT, especially due to its closer ties with American users. The study neither proves deposit outflows nor credit contraction. It also highlights the limits of an analysis conducted during a period of high rates. Higher Savings Rates to Slow Stablecoins The question of the links between banks and stablecoins continues to fuel debate. Tether already contested, at the end of August, the BIS’s reading on tokenized deposits. This time, the institution moves on to data analysis with a study by Rashad Ahmed and Iñaki Aldasoro.
The researchers studied American weekly data from January 2019 to June 2025. They notably took into account policy rates, bond yields, the dollar, and stock market volatility.
Their finding is clear: a one basis point increase, or 0.01 percentage point, reduces stablecoin growth over ten weeks from about 15% to 12%. Another estimate, which adjusts for banks’ reactions in setting their rates, brings this growth to about 6%.
Why? The rates offered by banks do not mechanically follow those of the central bank. They change little when rates remain low, then adjust more strongly beyond a certain threshold.
The researchers use this difference to measure the effect of rates on stablecoins. Their results hold up to several tests, including excluding the Silicon Valley Bank episode.
USDC and USDT, Different Sensitivity to Bank Rates The study also highlights a difference between the two main stablecoins. Circle’s USDC reacts more to changes in deposit rates than Tether’s USDT. The researchers attribute this gap mainly to Circle’s proximity to American users.
The results also do not seem to reflect a simple overall trend in the crypto market. An additional test does not show the same link between the instrument used by the researchers and the growth of other cryptocurrencies.
Furthermore, a Federal Reserve note explains that funds placed in stablecoins can return to the banking system in the form of deposits held by issuers. Deposits therefore do not necessarily disappear, but their distribution changes. Banks may nonetheless have to hold more liquid assets if they depend on more volatile funding.
The Study’s Limits and Open Questions However, caution is needed not to draw excessive conclusions. The study does not demonstrate either an actual decrease in deposits or a credit contraction. In addition, it covers only one episode of high rates. Yield-bearing stablecoins and tokenized money market funds could also change this competition by directly offering a return to their holders.
On the regulatory side the Federal Reserve proposed at the end of September a two-day deadline to reimburse stablecoin holders. In January, the head of Bank of America also mentioned the risk of several thousands of billions of dollars leaving bank deposits.
In essence, banks have a simple lever to remain competitive: better remuneration of savings. The competition with stablecoins therefore relies not only on technology but also on the yield offered to liquidity holders.
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Fenelon L.
Passionné par le Bitcoin, j'aime explorer les méandres de la blockchain et des cryptos et je partage mes découvertes avec la communauté. Mon rêve est de vivre dans un monde où la vie privée et la liberté financière sont garanties pour tous, et je crois fermement que Bitcoin est l'outil qui peut rendre cela possible.
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The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.
USDT a USDC dohromady dosahují zhruba 256 mld. USD, což představuje více než 85 % trhu se stablecoiny o celkové hodnotě 302 mld. USD; Sky Dollar (USDS) dosahuje 6,8 mld. USD, zatímco žádný další stablecoin nepřekročil hranici 5 mld. USD.
The stablecoin market has never looked more lopsided. Data from DefiLlama shows that Tether’s USDT ($183.4B) and Circle’s USDC ($72.7B) together hold roughly $256B, more than 85% of the total $302B stablecoin market.
No other issuer comes close to the $5B threshold. The gap is not narrowing. It is widening.
A Two-Horse Race With a Cliff After the Second Runner
The numbers from DefiLlama as of October 17, 2026, tell a stark story. USDT leads at $183.4B, commanding 60.6% of the stablecoin market alone. USDC follows at $72.7B, driven heavily by institutional and regulated demand.
Then comes the cliff. Sky Dollar (USDS) sits at $6.8B. Ethena’s USDe follows at $4.7B. World Liberty Financial’s USD1 holds $4B. PayPal’s PYUSD sits at $2.8B. Ripple’s RLUSD trails at $2.4B.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has pointed to AI agents as the next frontier for USDT adoption.
He predicts as many as one trillion AI agents will transact in USDT within 15 years.
Agents spending USDT is the future. https://t.co/2HLBrmG3DA
— Paolo Ardoino 🤖 (@paoloardoino) October 15, 2026
Ethena is making calculated moves to escape the challenger trap. The protocol recently entered crypto neobanking with a new app to take USDe beyond DeFi.
It also teamed with FalconX on a $1 billion secured facility for USDe backing assets. Both moves signal that USDe is building real-world utility, but at $4.7B, it remains a fraction of the giants.
USD1 is pursuing a payments angle. Mesh recently acquired Bluvo after a WLFI partnership, a deal designed to deepen USD1’s payment rails. Yet at $4B, USD1 still sits well below the threshold that could threaten the two leaders.
Why Flipping the Duopoly Remains Nearly Impossible
Trust and liquidity are the core barriers. USDT dominates trading pairs and emerging-market corridors. USDC leads in regulated, institutional contexts.
Circle’s distribution strategy is accelerating that lead. Visa recently moved USDC prefunding into live operations on Visa Direct.
Circle paid out $819M to distribution partners in H1 2026 alone, reinforcing network lock-in.
Payment infrastructure is also expanding. Coinbase expanded its Marqeta partnership to bring stablecoin-backed payment cards to businesses. These rails make USDC harder to displace in corporate finance.
Traditional finance is circling the space. Wells Fargo’s CEO confirmed the bank is preparing for potential stablecoin opportunities in the US. New bank-issued stablecoins, however, are more likely to deepen USDC’s institutional moat than challenge it.
Regulatory scrutiny adds another layer. A US Senate probe recently found USDT present in 84% of sanctioned Iran’s wallets. Tether has since defended its compliance posture.
The controversy has not dented USDT’s dominance, but it gives regulators a lever that could reshape the stablecoin market in ways no competitor currently can.
For now, the data is unambiguous. Breaking through the $5B ceiling requires more than innovation.
It demands liquidity, regulatory trust, and distribution at a scale that only two issuers have built, and neither shows signs of giving ground.
Saber Money has secured strategic funding from stablecoin issuer Tether and CMCC Global’s Titan Fund to expand its cross-border payment operations across Asia-Pacific and the Gulf region.
Summary
Tether and CMCC Global’s Titan Fund have invested in Saber Money to support its expansion across Asia and the Gulf region. Saber plans to secure new regulatory licenses and banking partnerships while developing payment services for businesses. The company reported more than sixfold growth in payment volumes over nine months, processing billions of dollars across more than 40 countries. Over 90% of Saber’s payments are completed in under one minute, according to the company. According to the company’s announcement, the investment will support new regulatory licenses, banking partnerships and payment products designed for businesses operating across emerging markets. Saber did not disclose the amount raised or the valuation attached to the funding.
The company plans to use the capital to strengthen its operations in existing markets while entering new payment corridors. Local banking relationships and regulatory approvals will be central to its expansion strategy, particularly in markets where international transfers remain costly or depend on several intermediaries.
Saber operates payment infrastructure that allows financial institutions, fintech companies and businesses to transfer funds internationally using stablecoins. Its services cover remittances, payroll and other business payments through application programming interfaces.
Saber Money plans new licenses and banking partnerships Saber currently holds licenses, registrations and authorizations across Canada, the European Union, India and Australia. Its corporate group operates Mudrex, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange.
Over the past nine months, the company said its payment volumes had grown more than sixfold, with billions of dollars processed across more than 40 countries.
More than 90% of its transactions are completed in under one minute, according to Saber. The company did not provide a detailed breakdown of payment volumes by market or disclose the average transaction size.
The expansion will focus partly on securing direct access to local banking networks. Such arrangements form part of Saber’s plan to improve settlement costs and offer payment services tailored to individual markets.
Saber CEO Edul Patel said the company was working to make stablecoin-based payment infrastructure available to businesses across Asia-Pacific and the Gulf, where demand for international transfers continues to grow.
The company intends to develop services for businesses paying overseas suppliers, managing corporate treasury operations and transferring working capital between countries.
Its existing infrastructure supports payments around the clock, allowing clients to initiate transfers outside conventional banking hours.
Tether investment supports emerging market payment infrastructure Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino described emerging markets as an important area for stablecoin payment adoption, pointing to Saber’s regulatory presence and access to financial systems across Asia and the Middle East.
Ardoino said stablecoin settlement could change the costs involved in international payments, particularly for businesses that rely on multiple financial intermediaries.
The investment comes alongside backing from CMCC Global’s Titan Fund, a Hong Kong-based investment vehicle focused on blockchain-related businesses.
Titan Fund co-founder and managing partner Shiau Sin Yen pointed to Asia’s role in international remittances, stating that the region contributes approximately 53% of global remittance flows.
Shiau cited projections that cross-border business-to-business stablecoin payments could reach $5 trillion by 2035. The announcement did not identify the underlying research behind that estimate.
Saber counts Y Combinator and Nexus Ventures among its existing investors, alongside Tether and Titan Fund.
In a separate investment announced on Oct. 13, Tether backed EFY Finance, a Latin American fintech company offering stablecoin payment services across 17 countries. EFY provides digital wallets, custody, payment cards and conversion services, with more than 25,000 accounts reported across its network.
Tether previously invested in LemFi in May 2026 to support USDT settlement for remittances between developed economies and markets in Africa and Asia, as crypto.news reported.
Corporate treasury payments have been another area of activity. In July, Hyundai Motor completed a $20,000 cross-border transfer between its American and Mexican operations using USDT on Avalanche. The payment settled in approximately seven minutes, with the receiving company converting the stablecoins back into conventional currency.
Asia and Gulf payment corridors attract stablecoin providers Asia accounts for roughly 35% of global payment flows, according to figures cited in Saber’s announcement. South Asia and East Asia and the Pacific collectively receive more than $1 trillion annually, while the United Arab Emirates recorded approximately AED 188 billion in outbound remittances in 2025.
The company identified international trade, migration and digital commerce as factors supporting demand for payment services in the two regions.
Other payment infrastructure companies have been raising capital to serve similar markets. In September, Fin.com secured $20 million in seed funding to develop stablecoin payment services across South Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Fin.com said its infrastructure supported more than 40 currencies and payouts across over 30 countries, with services designed to move stablecoins into local bank accounts and digital wallets.
Local currency settlement remains an operational challenge for payment providers. In August, Gravity Team CEO Mārtiņš Beņķītis said stablecoin transfers could be completed within seconds, but converting the funds into local currencies still required banking connections and sufficient liquidity in individual markets.
Gravity Team subsequently introduced an institutional trading desk offering same-day fiat settlement in more than 20 currencies, subject to local banking conditions.
Saber has not announced which countries it will enter next, the specific licenses it intends to seek or a launch schedule for its planned B2B payment products.
Tether Capital strategicky investovala do platformy AIsa, která umožňuje agentům umělé inteligence platit za data, software a výpočetní služby ve fiat měnách nebo stablecoinech.
Tether Invests in AIsa to Expand Its Push into AI-Powered Payments and Programmable Money
Investment advances Tether’s ambition to give people and businesses greater access to knowledge and financial tools 15 October 2026 – Tether Capital today announced a strategic investment in AIsa, a company that enables AI agents to access and pay for data, software, and computing services.
As AI agents move from answering questions to conducting research, using software and managing workflows, they keep running into purchasing systems built for people. Reaching a paid data source or software tool often means opening a separate account, subscription, or contract, which leaves a person to set up each service before the agent can get to work.
AIsa removes that friction by combining access and payment in one platform. Developers can connect agents to AI models, data, APIs, software tools, and computing resources through a single interface. Usage is billed in fiat or stablecoins, with spending limits set by the business. An agent doing market research, for example, can retrieve paid data as needed, without anyone managing a separate subscription for every source.
Tether believes wider access to AI must come with wider access to the financial tools needed to use it. By supporting AIsa, it aims to help more people and businesses benefit from technology that can increasingly carry out work on their behalf.
“We want people to have access to knowledge and financial tools, and the freedom to decide how they use them,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether. “As AI agents take on more work, people need a way to give them access to services while keeping control over what they spend. AIsa is building that infrastructure, and we see an opportunity to make these capabilities useful to a much wider group of people and businesses.”
AIsa reports more than 250,000 agents running on its platform and over 100 million transactions processed. Its network offers access to more than 5,000 APIs, skills and models through one key, with payment per call instead of separate vendor contracts. Businesses can buy resources as needed, and providers can sell their services directly into automated workflows. For smaller teams, that means research, analysis, and other specialist work with far fewer subscriptions to manage.
AIsa’s previous funding round drew backing from leading technology companies, financial institutions and venture investors, including major groups in Asia. Tether’s investment builds on that support and expands its presence in agentic payments.
The investment fits a pattern in Tether’s recent work. It follows its investment in NEURA Robotics, which included plans to integrate Tether’s Wallet Development Kit (WDK) and QVAC into robotic systems so machines can run AI locally and transact within predefined limits. WDK enables developers to build self-custodial wallets, while QVAC is designed to run AI directly on users’ devices. Backing AIsa extends the same goal, giving people greater control over their money and access to intelligence, to the services they need when agents do the work.
About Tether Capital
Tether Capital is the independent investment arm of Tether, the largest company in the digital assets industry. Based in El Salvador, the company deploys capital from Tether’s profits and excess reserves across a wide range of sectors where technology, infrastructure, and real-world utility intersect.
Its portfolio includes investments in artificial intelligence, financial services, energy, biotechnology, education, and digital media, as well as strategic stakes in industries such as commodities, remittances, and sports and entertainment. Tether Capital supports ventures with long-term potential to improve access, efficiency, and resilience in both emerging and developed markets. Its work supports Tether Group’s broader mission to strengthen decentralized systems, promote infrastructure resilience, and expand real-world access to open, transparent technologies.
Tether podle deníku The Wall Street Journal poslal firmě Nxum, kterou spoluzaložil Bo Hines, zhruba 6,3 milionu USD; část plateb proběhla během Hinesova působení v Bílém domě.
Tether sent approximately $6.3 million to a consulting firm co-founded by Bo Hines, according to The Wall Street Journal. At least part of that money moved while Hines was still working in the White House.
Hines later joined Tether and now runs its US operations. The sequence is drawing conflict-of-interest scrutiny, because Hines helped advance the stablecoin law that now governs companies like his new employer.
What the Journal found
The firm is called Nxum. The Journal reported that Hines co-founded it and held a one-third ownership stake throughout his time in government.
Tether’s payments to Nxum came under a deal brokered in May 2025. The first payment landed while Hines still held his government post.
His job at the time was executive director of the White House’s digital assets council, a role he held from January to August 2025.
The Journal’s reporting draws on internal documents and payment records.
During that same stretch, Hines was a prominent advocate for the GENIUS Act. The bill set federal rules for dollar-pegged stablecoins, and President Trump signed it into law in July 2025.
Tether is the issuer of USDT, the largest stablecoin. A federal stablecoin framework therefore lands directly on its business, deciding who can issue these tokens in the US and on what terms.
From the council to the corner office
Hines left the White House in August 2025. That same month, he joined Tether as a strategic advisor.
By September 2025, he was named CEO of Tether’s US operations, with a mandate focused on expanding the company’s presence in the country.
Nxum has pushed back on that reading. The firm says Hines had no involvement with Tether while he was serving in government.
The research also indicates Hines took part in discussions about the GENIUS Act during a period when he was not active in Nxum’s operations. That distinction appears to be central to the defense: he owned a piece of the firm, but he was not running it.
What this means for Tether and stablecoin regulation
The GENIUS Act was sold as a framework built to bring order and credibility to stablecoins. A story suggesting that a key promoter had financial ties to a major issuer while the law was being shaped could hand critics fresh ammunition.
For Tether’s US ambitions, timing is awkward. The company is trying to build a domestic footprint under the very rules Hines helped promote, with Hines himself in charge of that effort.
Nxum’s position is that Hines kept his distance from Tether while in government. The payment records described by the Journal show the money moved anyway, and that gap between the two accounts is where the scrutiny will likely stay focused.
Disclosure: This article was edited by John Chen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Tether Invests in EFY Finance to Accelerate Institutional Stablecoin Usage in LATAM
13 October 2026 – Tether, the largest company in the digital asset industry, has announced an investment in EFY Finance as part of EFY Finance’s seed round to accelerate institutional use cases for USD₮ and USA₮. The investment aims to strengthen the infrastructure connecting stablecoins to the traditional financial system across Latin America.
EFY Finance is a financial infrastructure company providing stablecoin-based cross-border payments, accounts, and digital asset custody across Latin America. It offers on- and off-ramp infrastructure for USD₮ and USA₮, OTC services, wallets, and cards across more than 12 currencies and corridors, with settlement to local accounts in 17 countries. The company is licensed as a Digital Asset Service Provider in El Salvador and operates regulated services for more than 25,000 active individual and business accounts. EFY Finance believes money should move at the speed of the internet: as simple, fast, and clear as sending a message, without borders.
Tether’s investment reflects its commitment to supporting the growth of regulated infrastructure that connects stablecoins with banks, businesses, and institutional users. EFY Finance’s strong distribution, established customer base, and licensed infrastructure position the company to drive the next stage of institutional stablecoin use cases, particularly in Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador, Panama, and Ecuador, where it already has a meaningful presence.
“Across Latin America, the US dollar is a lifeline against inflation and capital controls. USD₮ and USA₮ are how people access it, but doing so simply and reliably takes regulated infrastructure, banking connections, and real distribution. That is the gap EFY Finance is positioned to close, bringing the dollar within easier reach across the region,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether.
“Stablecoins have already become part of the financial infrastructure of Latin America. The challenge now is making them work seamlessly with the financial systems businesses use every day. That means connecting digital dollars with bank accounts, local payment networks, cards, and cross-border settlement. That is the infrastructure we are building at EFY Finance. Having Tether as a strategic investor gives us an exceptional collaborator to accelerate that vision and expand institutional access to USD₮ and USA₮ across the region,” said Andrés Tobón, Co-Founder and CEO of EFY Finance.
Tether’s investment in EFY Finance reflects a broader shift already underway across Latin America. According to Chainalysis, the region recorded nearly $1.5 trillion in cryptocurrency transaction volume between July 2022 and June 2025, making it one of the most dynamic regions. Persistent inflation, currency volatility, and restrictive capital controls in several countries continue to drive demand for stablecoins as a stable store of value and a hedge against local macroeconomic risk. Stablecoin purchases now account for over half of all exchange purchases. As regulatory frameworks mature and licensed infrastructure strengthens, Latin America is proving what’s possible when stablecoins meet real financial infrastructure. Tether and EFY Finance are excited to be part of this evolution.
About USA₮
USA₮ is a U.S.-dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank N.A., a federally chartered bank, that Tether, the global leader in stablecoin technology, has supported to launch. Purpose-built to serve the U.S. market and designed to comply with U.S. regulatory standards, USA₮ will be the foundational rail for the next generation of American commerce, trade, and finance.
USA₮ underscores Tether’s commitment to driving dominance and leadership in the evolving digital asset economy. As part of the broader Tether ecosystem, USA₮ will set a new benchmark in the U.S. for utility-driven stablecoins designed to deliver long-term value, strong governance, and real-world applications.
Important Note:
USA₮ is not legal tender (as described in section 5103 of title 31, United States Code) and will not be issued, backed, approved, or guaranteed by the U.S. government. USA₮ is not subject to the insurance protections of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), or any other government agency.
The issuer of USA₮ is Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A.
Tether froze $10 million in USDT following reports of a large theft affecting Ledger hardware wallets distributed by CryptoBilis, a third-party vendor active in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Investigators have traced the total assets stolen to as much as $93 million, mainly targeting TRON and USDT holdings, as officials work to track the movement of the stolen cryptocurrencies.
Ledger links incident to third-party resellerLedger, a leading French cryptocurrency hardware wallet manufacturer, stated that the affected wallets originated from devices sold by CryptoBilis. According to the company, there is no indication that its internal systems, services, or direct sales channels have been compromised.
A further investigation revealed a physical compromise on some devices. On October 10, Ledger identified an unauthorized hardware implant inside at least one compromised wallet, marking the first known evidence of a physical attack in this incident.
Ledger urged customers who purchased a CryptoBilis-supplied wallet in the past 90 days and have not yet configured it to leave the device unused. Existing users were advised to transfer assets to a new device and create a new recovery phrase.
Different estimates for funds stolenIndependent on-chain analysts have attempted to quantify the full extent of the losses. Bitquery, a blockchain analytics firm, attributed the attack to a theft of $93.2 million across 315 wallets spread over six blockchains. Another platform, YFarmX, placed the figure higher, estimating $94.5 million lost from 521 wallets on seven chains. Both relied on data from public blockchains.
SourceTotal StolenNumber of WalletsNumber of BlockchainsBitquery$93.2 million3156YFarmX$94.5 million5217Bitquery reported that approximately $70.5 million in TRON, $16.8 million in Bitcoin, and $3.7 million in Ethereum were stolen. Smaller amounts disappeared from BNB Chain, Polygon, and Solana. The addresses linked to the scheme were created on September 25, and numerous test transactions were observed before the main attack in early October.
On October 9, the attackers reportedly modified permissions for 30 TRON wallets ahead of transferring 203.8 BTC from 111 Bitcoin wallets in a single block. Such transfers require the private keys, suggesting an advanced operation involving premeditated access.
The ability to freeze assets makes stablecoin issuers like Tether central to investigations in such cases. Bitquery verified that about $81 million in traceable assets remained on-chain as of October 11, though some funds attempted to evade tracking via crypto mixing tools like Tornado Cash and Zcash.
Mini dictionary: Tornado Cash is a privacy protocol on Ethereum that enables users to obfuscate the source and destination of funds by mixing transactions, complicating efforts to trace cryptocurrencies involved in illicit activity.
Community response and ownership questionsThe classification of the incident as a CryptoBilis-specific case prompted criticism from the crypto community. CryptoBilis had been authorized as an official Ledger reseller, which led some users to call for greater accountability from Ledger. Some critics insisted that the incident should be recognized as a broader Ledger issue due to the vendor’s official reseller status.
Arravind Prabu, a co-founder of CryptoBilis, said the company was acquired in March 2026, and all access credentials were transferred at that time. Only one new investor was registered in China, and no evidence has surfaced connecting the ownership transition with the thefts. Investigators have not found tampering linked to the new investors.
In response to the ongoing investigation, CryptoBilis suspended all hardware wallet sales and closed its retail locations across Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
Ledger continues to coordinate with affected users and relevant authorities during the investigation.
Hardware implant discoveredA significant discovery concerning the nature of the compromised devices came from Mark Karpelès, founder of Mt. Gox. After dismantling a Ledger Nano X device purchased in Malaysia, Karpelès identified covert hardware components: a cellular modem, an eSIM, and a small chip capable of intercepting what the screen displayed.
During device setup, recovery phrases appear on the wallet’s display. A component intercepting this data could transmit the recovery words over a mobile network, enabling remote wallet recreation and subsequent theft. It remains unclear whether all compromised devices contained such a module.
This case is unrelated to another theft from March, where phishing using the Ledger Live app on Apple’s App Store led to additional losses estimated at a minimum of $9.5 million.
TRON ve třetím čtvrtletí roku 2026 zpracoval převody stablecoinů v objemu 2,21 bilionu USD a překonal hranici 30 bilionů USD v kumulativním objemu transakcí.
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Geneva, Switzerland, October 12, 2026 — TRON DAO, the community-governed DAO dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet through blockchain technology and decentralized applications (dApps), today highlighted key findings from its State of TRON Q3 2026 ecosystem report. The report examines network activity, stablecoin settlement, liquidity, tokenomics, developer activity, decentralization, and protocol governance during the third quarter of 2026.
TRON surpassed $30 trillion in cumulative transaction volume in Q3 2026, marking another milestone for a network used as infrastructure for stablecoin settlement and digital-asset transfers. At the same time, stablecoin supply and total value locked continued to expand, while the network’s active-address base grew and transaction activity remained broadly steady.
Key Insights
In Q3, TRON surpassed $30 trillion in cumulative transaction volume. Stablecoin settlement reached $2.21 trillion in the Q3 reporting period, with average daily volume rising 3.9% from Q2 to $24.05 billion.
Canary Capital launched the Canary Staked TRX ETF (TRXS) on September 9, 2026. TRXS gives investors exposure to the spot price of TRX—the native utility and governance token of the TRON blockchain network—alongside passive net staking rewards reflected directly in the fund’s daily net asset value. TRON DAO’s team rang the Cboe Closing Bell in Chicago on September 29 to celebrate its launch.
TRON expanded its ecosystem collaborations in Q3 2026, adding institutional custody and staking, new trading venues, and digital dollar products through Anchorage Digital, Bitnomial, Backpack, Ethena, and Ducat. Payment, wallet, cross-chain, and developer integrations also broadened access and strengthened the infrastructure for payment, treasury, and DeFi applications.
Stablecoin supply and Total Value Locked continued to expand. USDT and USDD supply reached $93.88 billion, up 5.5% from Q2, while TVL including staking hit $28.21 billion and TVL excluding staking (DeFi TVL) hit $13.05 billion
The active-address base widened while transaction frequency held steady. Average rolling monthly active addresses increased 9.8% to 18 million.
Network fee generation moderated. Fees totaled $701.4 million during Q3, averaging $7.62 million per day, down 4.0% from Q2. The average daily transaction fee fell from $0.668 to $0.643.
TRON’s ecosystem continued to broaden in Q3, with new integrations spanning institutional services, trading, stablecoins, payments, wallets, and developer infrastructure. Anchorage Digital added TRX staking and TRC-20 custody, while Bitnomial and Backpack expanded access to TRX markets. Ethena brought USDe and sUSDe to TRON, and Ducat connected its Bitcoin-backed financial infrastructure to the network’s stablecoin ecosystem.
The quarter also brought new capabilities for users and developers. MoonPay introduced gasless transactions through Trust Wallet, removing the need to hold TRX for network fees, while Bitcoin.com Wallet added native support for TRX and USDT-TRC20. MetaMask connectivity expanded across B.AI, SUN.io, JustLend DAO, and BitTorrent, while Fireblocks Flow added support for payments from TRON wallets. Eco and STON.fi expanded cross-chain stablecoin connectivity, and KiiChain linked TRON assets with its 24/7 foreign-exchange and payment infrastructure. For developers, Privy expanded wallet, transaction, and policy-management capabilities, while OpenZeppelin brought its smart contract libraries and security tooling to the network. Together, these integrations strengthened the infrastructure available for payments, treasury management, and DeFi applications on TRON.
TRON’s third-quarter developments underscore continued growth in stablecoin settlement, liquidity, network activity, and ecosystem infrastructure, reflecting sustained demand for its financial infrastructure. With these trends strengthening, TRON enters Q4 with an increasingly established role in global stablecoin settlement and digital asset activity.
Read the full report from TRON here.
About TRON DAO
TRON DAO is a community-governed DAO dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet via blockchain technology and dApps.
Founded in September 2017, the TRON blockchain has experienced significant growth since its MainNet launch in May 2018. Today, TRON hosts the largest circulating supply of USD Tether (USDT) stablecoin, which currently exceeds $94 billion. As of October 2026, the TRON blockchain has recorded over 408 million in total user accounts, more than 15 billion in total transactions, and over $28 billion in total value locked (TVL), based on TRONSCAN. Recognized as the global settlement layer for stablecoin transactions and everyday purchases with proven success, TRON is “Moving Trillions, Empowering Billions.”
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Tether po zhruba tříhodinovém zmrazení odblokoval čtyři trezory THORChain na blockchainu TRON a obnovil přístup k USDT v hodnotě přibližně 1,45 milionu USD.
Tether has reversed restrictions on four THORChain vaults on TRON, restoring access to approximately $1.45 million in USDT for users after a freeze that lasted around three hours.
The brief restriction took place on October 9 and temporarily blocked access to USDT within affected vaults on the THORChain network, disrupting a cross-chain trading route relied upon by some traders and liquidity providers. The block did not result in any loss of funds, as vault balances remained fully intact after the freeze was lifted.
THORChain, a decentralized protocol enabling cross-chain swaps, had to pause TRON trading, deposit operations, and transaction signing due to the freeze. These activities resumed soon after Tether removed the relevant addresses from its blacklist, while 19 additional addresses targeted by the same restriction remain blocked.
Chad Barraford, technical co-founder of THORChain, explained that the team received no prior communication or explanation for the freeze. Barraford stated that the protocol directly reached out to Tether during the incident, seeking clarification and expressing hope that the situation was a misunderstanding.
Chad Barraford, technical co-founder of THORChain, said the project did not receive advance warning about the USDT freeze and immediately contacted Tether for clarity, describing the resolution as a return to normal operations without broader implications for the protocol’s liquidity.
The restored access applies to only those four THORChain vaults. Other addresses blacklisted in the same operation, which remain constrained, do not benefit from this reversal. Thus, the underlying mechanism enabling centrally issued stablecoins to restrict wallet use persists for the affected wallets.
For users, the primary impact was the short-term suspension of trading and liquidity services on the THORChain protocol. The restored balances once again became accessible, ensuring platform functionality for those utilizing the unfrozen vaults.
Mini dictionary: THORChain is a decentralized liquidity protocol that facilitates cross-chain exchanges of digital assets without intermediaries, allowing users to swap cryptocurrencies directly between different blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and TRON.
Regulatory context and Tether’s wallet controlsTether, the issuer of the largest US dollar-pegged stablecoin in circulation, maintains control over USDT at the smart contract level. The company can freeze or unfreeze specific wallet addresses, typically in response to law enforcement requests or security incidents. In December 2023, Tether announced expanded freezing policies targeting wallets linked to sanctioned individuals or suspicious activity.
The operational pause on THORChain highlighted the dependency that even decentralized projects have on actions by entities controlling major stablecoin infrastructure. Decentralized exchanges or protocols must still account for the centralized authority embedded in these tokens, which can impact continuous access to liquidity or transactional capability if an address is blacklisted.
TRON’s rising USDT supply and market impactThe interruption and restoration of $1.45 million in USDT needs to be viewed within the broader context of the expanding USDT supply on the TRON network. According to data from research firm Lookonchain, the annual increase for USDT supply on TRON amounts to $18.67 billion, bringing the total to $94.25 billion—a growth rate of roughly 24.7%.
MetricValueUSDT released (THORChain vaults)$1.45 millionTotal USDT on TRON$94.25 billionAnnual USDT supply growth on TRON$18.67 billion (24.7%)Proportion of release vs. network supply0.0015%While the vault unfreeze helped restore protocol-specific activity, the sum involved represents only a fraction—around 0.0015%—of the overall USDT liquidity on TRON. Existing tokens held in the vaults did not constitute new issuance or net inflow to the stablecoin’s total supply. The event’s significance was largely operational for platform users.
The reopening of THORChain vaults did not indicate fresh capital entering the crypto market, but simply allowed already-issued USDT to become accessible for routine trading and liquidity provision.
The dominance of USDT compared to the broader cryptocurrency market temporarily retreated from a resistance zone noted in September. Still, market observers cautioned that this metric does not reliably predict flows into other cryptocurrencies, as total supply changes can result from a variety of user behaviors including transfers, collateralization, or platform migration.
At the time of the update, the remaining 19 addresses subject to the original restriction remained frozen, and neither Tether nor THORChain publicly disclosed further details regarding the criteria or communication behind the freeze.
Tether zablokoval čtyři trezory THORChain na síti TRON a zmrazil v nich přibližně 1,45 milionu USDT. THORChain kvůli tomu pozastavil swapy na síti TRON i související funkce poskytovatelů likvidity.
Tether has blacklisted four THORChain vault addresses on the Tron network, freezing approximately 1.45 million USDT in the process. The move, made on October 9, 2026, knocked THORChain’s Tron-based cross-chain swaps and liquidity-provider operations offline almost immediately.
According to THORChain co-founder Chad Barraford, the team received no advance communication from Tether before the freeze. One morning the vaults worked. Then they held tokens that could no longer move.
What actually got frozen THORChain is a cross-chain swap protocol. It lets users trade native assets across different blockchains, such as Bitcoin for USDT on Tron, without wrapping them or handing them to a centralized exchange.
The vaults hold the pooled assets that make those swaps possible, which is why freezing four of them stops activity cold.
With the Tron vaults blacklisted, the approximately 1.45 million USDT sitting inside them cannot be transferred. As a result, THORChain suspended Tron swaps and the related liquidity-provider functions.
THORChain currently secures around $47.9 million in total liquidity across all assets, according to recent explorer data. The frozen USDT is a small slice of that total, but it sits on a route that users rely on for stablecoin access.
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THORChain has not yet released a full account of the incident or a timeline for restoring service. That leaves liquidity providers on the Tron side waiting to learn what happens to their positions.
How Tether can do this at all Tether’s TRC-20 contract on Tron includes a function called addBlackList. When Tether calls it on an address, that address can no longer send USDT. Similar blacklist capabilities exist in Tether’s contracts on Ethereum.
Tether uses this power regularly, frequently in response to law enforcement requests. Over its history, the company has blacklisted more than 11,000 addresses across multiple chains, immobilizing billions in value.
What makes this case different is the target. Most freezes hit wallets tied to individual bad actors. This one hit shared infrastructure belonging to a protocol that serves many users at once.
The Bitget shadow In late September, THORChain made a controversial decision not to block addresses connected to the $387.5 million Bitget hack.
The source material does not establish whether Tether’s freeze is connected to the Bitget episode. What is clear is that the order of events is uncomfortable for THORChain: first it declined to censor, then a centralized issuer froze its vaults.
What this means for THORChain and DeFi The immediate stakes fall on Tron-side liquidity providers. Their capital sits in pools that are now partly frozen, with no announced recovery plan.
For THORChain itself, the incident exposes a structural weak point. A protocol can refuse to censor at its own layer and still be censored at the asset layer. If the token you hold has an issuer with a blacklist, your neutrality only goes as far as that issuer’s patience.
USDT moves through decentralized rails, but control over whether it moves at all stays with Tether.
The things to watch now are concrete. Will THORChain release a recovery timeline for Tron swaps? Will Tether explain the basis for the freeze or reverse it?
For now, about 1.45 million USDT sits frozen in four vaults, and a protocol designed to route around gatekeepers is learning exactly where the gate is.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Trader při jediném převodu přišel o 80 BTC v hodnotě přibližně 6,6 milionu USD z nové hardwarové peněženky Ledger. Arkham odhaduje celkové ztráty v důsledku incidentu na více než 80 milionů USD.
A crypto trader lost 80 Bitcoin (BTC), worth about $6.6 million, in a single transfer on Friday. The coins had sat for 10 days on a new Ledger hardware wallet, a device sold to keep crypto safe offline.
Blockchain tracker Lookonchain says he bought the device from CryptoBilis. Hours after the theft, Ledger told that Southeast Asian reseller to halt sales while it investigates lost funds.
How 80 Bitcoin Left a 10-Day-Old Ledger WalletLookonchain said the trader bought the coins about four months ago at roughly $65,000 each. That came to around $5.2 million.
Public Bitcoin records on mempool show all 80 BTC reached his wallet on September 29. They left in one transfer at 05:54 UTC on October 9.
With Bitcoin price trading above $83,000, Lookonchain put his paper profit at $1.38 million before the coins disappeared.
The same block of transactions carried at least six other large transfers into addresses that blockchain analysts link to the drain.
How Big the Ledger Drain Is, and What Ledger Has SaidLedger has paused the reseller’s sales and told recent buyers not to set up their devices. It has not said whether any devices were tampered with.
Estimates of the total keep rising. Blockchain analytics firm Arkham put losses above $80 million and said the cause is unconfirmed.
MistTrack, the tracking service of security firm SlowMist, offered a higher figure, possibly reaching $90 million. MistTrack also said Tether, which issues the USDT dollar-pegged stablecoin, froze USDT at addresses linked to the theft.
Tether can block its tokens from moving.
Hardware wallet makers have faced repeated scares this year. In August, a Coldcard firmware bug let thieves drain about $70 million in Bitcoin. Ledger said it will share updates as its investigation progresses.
Senátor Richard Blumenthal žádá Cantor Fitzgerald o informace o jeho vztahu s Tetherem, včetně opatření proti praní špinavých peněz a obcházení sankcí. Cantor spravuje americké rezervy kryjící USDT.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick speaks to Bo Hines, a former White House adviser who is CEO of Tether U.S. (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk)Summary
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal is continuing to dig into Tether’s financial relationships, sending the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald a letter requesting information on the relationship between the financial firm and the stablecoin issuer. The CEO letter recipient is Brandon Lutnick, the son of U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who transferred that leadership post at the company when he left to join President Donald Trump’s administration. Cantor holds and manages Tether’s reserves in the U.S., and the two companies share a number of other business interests. The top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Richard Blumenthal, is demanding answers about the ties between Cantor Fitzgerald and the worldwide leader in stablecoins, Tether. If Democratic momentum continues into the November election, he and his colleagues may soon have more authority behind such probes.
Blumenthal sent a letter Thursday to Cantor's CEO, Brandon Lutnick, the son of President Donald Trump's Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who handed the company reins to his son when he joined the administration. Blumenthal has been scrutinizing Tether's role in Iran's financial system, and he flagged the lucrative business connection between the issuer of USDT and the firm that handles its U.S. reserves, Cantor.
"Just as Tether has made untold millions in interest and investments from the stablecoins used in these illicit activities, so has Cantor Fitzgerald profited from its relationship with Tether," Blumenthal wrote, questioning Lutnick about his company's banking and sanctions safeguards and also his father’s history with Tether there.
"While Tether claims to operate out of El Salvador, the vast majority of its assets reside in the United States under your custodianship," the Connecticut lawmaker wrote. "As Congress considers how to best regulate digital assets, your partnership with Tether will provide important insights into the inner workings of this industry."
One of the letter's many requests: "Please describe all steps Cantor Fitzgerald has taken to investigate allegations that Tether’s stablecoin has been used in illicit finance and money laundering, including within Iran’s shadow banking network and for purposes of Russia sanctions evasion."
Neither Cantor Fitzgerald nor Tether immediately responded to requests for comment sent to their spokespeople.
While Blumenthal and other aggressive congressional critics of the crypto industry, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren, have suffered from a limited authority as members of the minority party, securing a Democratic majority for next year would change that. If they win several more seats in that chamber, they could find themselves atop committees with subpoena power to legally compel information and testimony.
As it stands, the prediction markets suggest that Democrats have a better-then-even shot at returning to the majority. Kalshi has it at 61% and Polymarket at 64%. That number was closer to 50-50 several weeks ago. And the picture in the U.S. House of Representatives is even more positive for Democrats, with both platforms showing the likelihood of a majority shift at more than 90%.
12345678910The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific
The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
Sep 15, 2026
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
Why it matters:
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
@Tether has quietly become one of the most profitable financial enterprises on the planet, and the numbers are hard to ignore. The issuer of the world's largest stablecoin has generated $19.93 billion in lifetime revenue from yield on the assets backing its $184 billion $USDT stablecoin, a figure that puts it in rare company across both crypto and traditional finance.
A Revenue Machine Built on Reserves Tether's business model is straightforward but extraordinarily lucrative. Rather than charging transaction fees, it earns yield by investing the dollars deposited to mint $USDT into short-term assets, primarily U.S. Treasuries.
How Circle Compares @Circle's $USDC has generated $7.57 billion in lifetime revenue, a figure that is impressive in its own right but illustrates how large the gap between the two issuers has grown. The structural reasons are clear: $USDT's supply is more than double that of $USDC, giving Tether a significant head start on reserve income.
Circle also faces a cost structure that limits how much of that revenue it retains.
Growth is accelerating, but the scale difference with Tether remains stark.
The stablecoin sector is maturing fast, and the revenue figures from both @Tether and @Circle underline just how much value flows through dollar-pegged tokens. For now, $USDT's commanding market lead means its earnings power is in a league of its own.
Sources:
The Block: Tether reports $13 billion in net profits for 2024
Yahoo Finance: Tether Projects $15 Billion Profit in 2025
Payment Expert: How Circle makes money from USDC
ESMA stanovila platformám v EU lhůtu do 8. ledna 2027 k nápravě služeb pro stabilní kryptoměny, včetně USDT od společnosti Tether, které nejsou v souladu s nařízením MiCA. Do té doby mohou poskytovat pouze služby nezbytné k likvidaci, konverzi, výběru, převodu nebo úschově těchto aktiv.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has told crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) authorized under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation to cease offering services involving stablecoins that do not meet the EU’s regulatory requirements.
The guidance covers non-compliant asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens and applies across services including trading, exchange, order execution, custody, transfers, investment advice and portfolio management.
The EU regulator said that national competent authorities should supervise firms to ensure they do not maintain or introduce access to non-MiCA-compliant stablecoins for EU clients. CASPs will also be expected to put technical, contractual and organizational safeguards in place to prevent clients from acquiring or increasing their positions in those tokens.
Tether’s USDT is among the stablecoins that could be affected by new European regulatory guidance after ESMA called on crypto platforms to restrict services involving tokens that do not comply with MiCA.
Tether has not secured MiCA authorization for USDT and has indicated it does not intend to apply for an EU e-money token license. This leaves access to USDT for EU clients increasingly dependent on how individual regulated platforms implement the rules.
For clients who already hold affected stablecoins, national regulators are expected to require remediation as soon as possible and within three months of the opinion’s publication.
That puts the deadline on Jan. 8, 2027. Until then, platforms could continue to provide only the services needed to liquidate, convert, withdraw, transfer or safeguard the assets.
The move builds on earlier restrictions in the European Economic Area, where several major crypto platforms have already limited or removed USDT access for EEA users.
Disclosure: This article was edited by John Chen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Tether podepsal s Národní bankou Kazachstánu a správou města Alatau memorandum o přípravě návrhu pilotního projektu stablecoinu navázaného na tenge a rámce tokenizace aktiv.
In brief Tether signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Bank of Kazakhstan and the Alatau City Authority to prepare a pilot proposal for a tenge-pegged stablecoin and an asset tokenization framework. Kazakhstan's central bank earmarked up to $350 million for crypto-linked investments in March, and officials said in September that the national crypto reserve has reached $700 million. The deal lands days after a Senate subcommittee report on Iran-linked USDT use and a lawsuit over a $2.76 million Tether freeze. Tether, the company behind the world's largest stablecoin, signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Bank of Kazakhstan and the Alatau City Authority, the company announced Wednesday.
The memorandum’s first goal is a stablecoin pegged to the tenge, Kazakhstan's currency. The three parties will study how other countries issue them and then prepare a concept and pilot proposal, though the announcement does not say who would issue the token.
Myriad: Where does Ethereum go next? Click to make your prediction.On tokenization—recording ownership of something real, like a building or a bond, as a digital token on a blockchain—the parties will pick priority asset categories, design a model and launch a pilot inside Alatau, possibly on Hadron, the tokenization platform Tether launched in November 2024. The memorandum sets no date for either pilot.
A memorandum is a written statement of what the parties plan to explore together, so think handshake, not contract. The deal also includes workshops to train central bank staff on issuing tokens, managing reserves and tokenizing assets.
Alatau is a planned smart city in the Almaty region, built from scratch with its own legal regime and pitched as a fintech hub for Central Asia. The $7.2 billion project aims to grow from 52,000 residents to two million, with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev wanting people there to pay for goods and services in cryptocurrency.
In March, the central bank earmarked up to $350 million for crypto-related investments out of nearly $70 billion in gold and foreign exchange reserves, though the money may go into shares of crypto-linked companies and index funds rather than coins.
Officials said in September that the national crypto reserve has reached $700 million, with about $200 million invested so far, mostly through hedge funds, which are private pools that trade on behalf of large investors.
Kazakhstan already runs a tenge stablecoin pilot called Evo, launched in September 2025 inside the central bank's regulatory sandbox—a supervised testing ground for new financial products—and was issued by the exchange Intebix and Eurasian Bank with help from Solana and Mastercard. The central bank writes the rules of the test but does not issue the token.
The National Bank has a separate plan to tokenize two Alatau properties, worth up to $50 million and $10 million, due by the end of 2026 on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange's infrastructure.
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Tether is in the news today for freezing funds of Conduit, a U.S.-based payment firm.
According to the lawsuit filed with the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Conduit alleged that Tether froze its $2.7M USDT with “no justifiable basis.”
Conduit has asked Tether to return the funds—or to even provide a purported justification for Tether’s improper taking. Tether has refused to do either. Tether has no justifiable basis to take and withhold Conduit’s money from it, and Conduit has been harmed as a result.
According to Conduit, Tether continues to profit from the alleged “unjustifiable freeze” by earning interest income on the reserve assets backing the $2.76M USDT.
Source: Court Listener Conduit’s claims against Tether Conduit noted that Tether froze the funds on the 24th of September, 2025. According to the payment firm, Tether referred them to the Brazilian Federal Police for details on the seizure.
However, Conduit claimed that the Brazilian authorities denied ordering the stablecoin issuer to freeze its funds.
Worth pointing out that the payment firm acknowledged that there was an ongoing investigation into Onix transfers using the Conduit platform. As a result, Brazilian authorities ordered Tether to freeze some of these funds.
Analysts flagged that 23 Tron addresses were indeed frozen on the 24th of September. The said Conduit wallet, holding $2.7M USDT, was one of them and has never been unfrozen.
But Conduit defended the wallet as a treasury wallet that was formed a month after Onix’s last transaction on the platform.
Reacting to the same, Taylor Monahan, a prominent security and blockchain expert, said,
I think Brazilian authorities have their wires crossed on what they demanded be frozen and/or isn’t communicating with Conduit well.
Monahan added,
Or Conduit is choosing to be selective with their portrayal of the situation to US courts in order to try to get their address unfrozen without dealing with the Brazilian situation head-on.
This is the second lawsuit against Tether in less than two months. And both involve those who are under investigation. Last month, a duo sued Tether for $42.4M in frozen USDT and demanded all the earned interest income plus the initial capital.
In late September, the U.S. Senate released a damning report, claiming Tether’s USDT is a key enabler of Iran’s illicit crypto flows. In its defense, Tether said it had frozen over half a billion dollars tied to the Iranian regime.
Source: DeFiLlama Tether’s USDT is the world’s largest stablecoin, with $184B in market supply. But it’s unclear whether the ongoing regulatory pressure and scrutiny will reduce its global dominance.
Final Summary Payment firm Conduit has sued Tether for freezing $2.76M in USDT funds and illegally earning interest income on it. Tether is also facing growing scrutiny from the U.S. Congress over Iranian illicit crypto flows.
Zpráva senátních demokratů uvádí, že 84 % sankcionovaných peněženek spojených s Íránem a jeho spojenci používalo především USDT. Demokraté žádají prověřit, zda společnost Tether dodržuje sankce.
Senate Democrats have a new report, and Tether is the main character. On September 28, 2026, minority staff on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a document arguing that USDT has become a core tool of Iran’s sanctions-evasion machinery.
The report is titled ‘Tethered to Terrorism: Crypto & Iran’s Shadow Banking Network.’
The findings arrive amid existing tensions between the US and Iran. They also come with a request for federal follow-up, which turns the report from a policy paper into something closer to a warning shot.
What the report found The 28-page document examined 846 crypto wallets. All of them had been sanctioned or targeted for seizure by one of two bodies between June 2021 and August 2026.
The first is the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, better known as OFAC. The second is Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing.
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The headline number: 84% of the sanctioned wallets tied to Iran and its affiliated proxies transacted primarily in USDT.
The breakdown gets more pointed when split by designating authority. According to the report, 87% of the 757 wallets flagged by Israel transacted mainly in USDT. Among the 101 wallets designated by OFAC, the figure was 57%.
The report frames USDT as a financial lifeline for Iran’s shadow banking network. It also links the flow of funds to Iranian proxies, including Hezbollah and Hamas.
One case stands out. A network of sanctioned oil smugglers moved over $603 million in USDT during the period the report covers.
Tether’s response and the pre-2024 problem Tether moved quickly after the report dropped. The company said it had helped freeze roughly $550 million in Iran-affiliated USDT over the course of 2026.
That total includes significant sums connected directly to the Central Bank of Iran. In April 2026, Tether froze $344 million tied to two wallets identified with the central bank.
The analysis points to inconsistencies in how Tether handled wallet freezes before 2024. The suggestion is that the company’s enforcement was uneven in earlier years, even if its more recent actions have been substantial.
So Tether’s defense rests on its 2026 record. The report’s critique rests on what happened before that.
The referral and the deadline Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who is leading the subcommittee effort, has referred the findings for further investigation. The focus is whether Tether complied with US sanctions and anti-money laundering rules.
Blumenthal’s letter asks the Treasury Department and the Justice Department to respond by October 9, 2026.
A minority-staff report does not carry the weight of a full committee finding. Democrats are not the ones setting the subcommittee’s official agenda here.
Disclosure: This article was edited by John Chen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
ZachXBT se vydával za klienta čínské skupiny, která údajně prala prostředky z hackerského útoku na Bybit, a díky získaným informacím pomohl zmrazit 442 000 USDT.
ZachXBT posed as a client to a Chinese crew laundering Bybit funds for Lazarus.The launderer called his client Kim Jong-un and gave daily updates on his mood.Between orders came rabbit stew photos, a mahjong invite, and a Disney trip.ZachXBT posed as a scammer to infiltrate a Chinese crew accused of laundering most of Bybit’s $1.5 billion for North Korea. His launderer repaid him with Kim Jong-un updates, dinner photos, and a mahjong invitation.
The investigator says the intel helped freeze funds and attribute Bybit flows. He fronted $349,700 of his own money and took a 5% cut on every order, paid to the people he was investigating.
Where Do You Find North Korea’s Launderer? In THORChain’s Help ChatZachXBT gets a lead in February 2025, days after the Bybit hack. He spotted 15 or more accounts in public Telegram and Discord groups seeking help with orders tied to stolen funds.
One of them, using the alias Jimmy Green, had posted a stuck transaction in THORChain’s 10,845-member community chat. A THORSwap team member replied asking where he was swapping. The funds, ZachXBT says, were Bybit money that had moved through THORChain.
Jimmy’s Telegram bio was a job ad. Written in Chinese, it offered to process flagged BTC, ETH, SOL, and TRX through a mixing service. Nothing, it promised, would flow back. The account used a US phone number with a Virginia area code.
Jimmy Green’s User Info. Source: ZachXBTZachXBT’s cover story was marked ETH from the privacy tool Railgun that needed to become clean USDT on Tron. Jimmy quoted 5%. One early order came back as exactly 23,750 USDT, a 5% haircut on $25,000.
How Many Times Can Kim Jong-un Come Up in One Chat?Jimmy did not say “the client.” He said Kim Jong-un, by name, and treated him like a moody supplier.
Jimmy Talks About Kim Jong-un to ZachXBT (kj). Source: ZachXBT Later updates read like a weather report. Kim had called a halt because the coins sent back were too dirty and under investigation. Kim was testing Bitcoin because he feared USDT freezes. Of 50 BTC released, Jimmy’s team got 30.
At one point “the foreigners” ordered a ten-day break. Jimmy grumbled that the North Korean supply was suspended and his team needed more work.
ZachXBT, in character, asked whether Kim Jong-un had kept him busy that day. Jimmy replied that he was busy every day now.
He pitched his firm as professional coin laundering, isolation, and freezing prevention, and called it China’s largest. Then he told ZachXBT his team had laundered almost all of Bybit’s $1.5 billion in ETH.
ZachXBT says the boast matched laundering patterns he had already traced. It remains Jimmy’s claim, not a verified figure. The investigator has previously named a Chinese OTC trader for moving Lazarus funds.
Jimmy Green Boasting About $1.5 Billion ETH Laundering. Source: ZachXBTDid the Launderer Really Call the Money’s Next Move?The most useful thing Jimmy did was talk before acting. One morning, he announced that North Korea’s work would start tomorrow and Bitcoin would return to Solana. The next day, ZachXBT says, the funds moved to Solana.
On March 12, 2025, Jimmy sent a screenshot of himself bridging 1.192 BTC into ETH. ZachXBT matched the amount and timing to a THORChain order created minutes after the message.
Jimmy Bridges 1.192 BTC Into ETH. Source: ZachXBTJimmy also handed over three Solana addresses. They exposed a cluster of $12 million or more in Bybit funds cycling through BTC, ETH, SOL, and Tron. Tether later froze 442,000 USDT linked to it.
He solved an older case by accident. Jimmy mentioned a team he knew had around $300,000 frozen in 2024. ZachXBT found it onchain, as 332,000 USDC from the Poloniex exploit.
A separate brag about washing $3 million in fraud proceeds led to a hot wallet at Huione Guarantee. ZachXBT notes the Cambodian marketplace has since been sanctioned and its former chairman arrested.
Who Was Chasing Whom?Between orders, Jimmy sent photos of two steaming pots of stew. The meat was wild rabbit and wild bird, shot with a gun. He asked whether ZachXBT could play Chinese mahjong.
Other days brought his fat-reducing meal, a cup of American coffee, and complaints about the cold. ZachXBT says the small talk also covered family life and vacations at Disney.
One photo showed Jimmy’s phone displaying a wallet holding about 1.2 million USDT. The laptop behind it had Google Translate open, which explains the grammar.
Jimmy was clear about where his team stood. “We are honest businessmen,” he said, moments after sending through another batch of USDT.
The pause before it, he explained, was because his team had suspected ZachXBT of fooling them. Integrity, he said, came first.
Meanwhile, the detective played hard to get. Jimmy messaged good morning past midnight, hello an hour later, and a lone question mark before dawn. ZachXBT scolded him.
ZachXBT Scolded Jimmy. Source: X PostJimmy apologized and said his team had $1 million ready to start at any time.
ZachXBT says he handed everything to private investigators and law enforcement, which is why the thread arrived 19 months late. He puts his DPRK-related freezes since 2022 at $75 million or more, against billions stolen.
The same support-ticket pattern resurfaced last month. Launderers moving funds from the $387 million Bitget hack openly asked for help in public groups. North Korea’s contractors, it turns out, still need customer service.
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Anchorage Digital has reportedly cut 17% of its workforce after securing a $100 million Tether investment earlier this year.
Summary
CEO Nathan McCauley reportedly informed employees of the workforce reduction this week. A 17% cut would equal about 68 jobs if February’s headcount remained unchanged. Tether announced its $100 million strategic equity investment in Anchorage on Feb. 5. Recent expansions include cross-chain stablecoin infrastructure and custody support for tokenized uranium. The Information reported on Oct. 2, citing people familiar with the matter, that McCauley had told employees about the layoffs during the week. The report placed the reduction against a prolonged downturn in crypto markets.
Anchorage Digital’s reported cuts could affect about 68 jobs In congressional testimony in February, McCauley put Anchorage’s global workforce at approximately 400 employees. Applying the reported 17% reduction to that figure would amount to about 68 positions, provided the company’s headcount had stayed near the same level.
The February figure covers employees globally, so the calculation represents a possible company-wide reduction rather than a confirmed number of U.S. job losses.
According to the supplied report, Anchorage received a $4.2 billion valuation earlier this year. The workforce reduction follows both that valuation and fresh investment from Tether, which already works with Anchorage through its U.S.-focused stablecoin, USAT.
The Information cited weak crypto markets as the backdrop to the cuts. The supplied account also noted that Bitcoin briefly recovered above $87,000 on Friday but remained below its $126,000 peak from October 2025.
Tether invested $100 million after USAT’s launch Earlier coverage by crypto.news recorded Anchorage’s $100 million strategic round in its Feb. 7 funding report. Tether Investments had announced the equity transaction two days earlier, describing it as an expansion of the companies’ existing relationship.
In its investment announcement, Tether identified custody, staking, governance, settlement and stablecoin issuance among Anchorage’s services. It also said its experience working with Anchorage’s banking and compliance infrastructure on USAT informed the investment decision.
The transaction gave Tether an equity investment in the company responsible for issuing its new domestic stablecoin. Tether’s announcement identified Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A. as USAT’s legal issuer, maintaining a distinction between the bank’s issuance responsibilities and Tether’s support for the product.
USAT entered the market on Jan. 27, according to Tether’s launch announcement. The company described the token as a dollar-backed product designed for the U.S. federal stablecoin framework established under the GENIUS Act.
For American users, Tether’s announcement also set out limits on the token’s protections. It stated that USAT is not legal tender, is not backed or guaranteed by the U.S. government, and does not carry FDIC or SIPC insurance.
Under the launch arrangement, Tether named Cantor Fitzgerald as the reserve custodian and preferred primary dealer. The announcement listed Bybit, Crypto.com, Kraken, OKX and MoonPay among platforms supporting the first phase of the rollout.
September’s LayerZero deal extends stablecoin infrastructure On Sep. 22, previous coverage detailed Anchorage’s LayerZero stablecoin infrastructure partnership, announced the day before. LayerZero said it would provide cross-chain infrastructure for stablecoins issued through Anchorage’s banking platform, with USAT named as the first token to use the arrangement.
According to LayerZero’s announcement, the agreement makes its technology the preferred interoperability layer for eligible Anchorage-issued stablecoins. Anchorage handles regulated issuance, while LayerZero provides infrastructure connecting token deployments across supported networks.
LayerZero’s Omnichain Fungible Token standard allows an issuer to maintain a unified token supply across multiple blockchains. The company says issuers retain control of their contracts, choose the networks they support and configure the security settings for cross-chain messages.
The Sep. 22 report also identified Western Union’s USDPT, OSL Group’s USDGO and Falcon Finance’s fUSD among the stablecoins included in Anchorage’s issuance portfolio. Although LayerZero said its infrastructure supports more than 170 networks, the report distinguished that technical reach from confirmed deployments of each individual stablecoin.
For USAT, Anchorage publishes monthly reserve attestations, according to the same coverage. Its first January report recorded 17.5 million redeemable tokens outstanding and approximately $17.6 million in supporting reserve assets.
Etherlink custody adds assets under U.S. bank supervision In a separate Sep. 17 report, Anchorage’s Etherlink custody expansion added support for seven assets on the Tezos layer 2 network. Anchorage said institutional clients could hold the tokens through segregated accounts at Anchorage Digital Bank.
The supported assets included xU3O8, wrapped XTZ, stXTZ, USDT, USDC, USDSM and wrapped Ether. According to Anchorage, clients could apply existing custody policies and operational controls rather than establish a separate arrangement for Etherlink holdings.
Among those assets, xU3O8 represents physical uranium through Uranium.io. Anchorage described the addition as a way for institutional investors to hold tokenized commodity exposure within the same custody infrastructure used for other digital assets.
The bank’s U.S. regulatory status dates to January 2021, when the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency approved Anchorage Trust Company’s conversion from a South Dakota trust company into a national trust bank. The OCC said the approval included an enforceable operating agreement covering capital, liquidity, and risk management requirements.
In its February 2026 records, the OCC listed the termination of Anchorage Digital Bank’s original January 2021 operating agreement.
USDT se má tento měsíc vrátit na bitcoin prostřednictvím infrastruktury Utexo. Projekt slibuje soukromé převody, přímé swapy BTC/USDT a půjčky kryté nativním bitcoinem.
Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino at Paris Blockchain Week on April 14, 2022. (Twitter/Bitfinex, modified by CoinDesk)Summary
Tether’s USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin, is expected to return to Bitcoin this month through infrastructure developed by the Tether-backed project Utexo.Utexo plans to support private USDT transfers, direct swaps between native bitcoin and USDT, and loans backed by native bitcoin, while keeping most transaction data off Bitcoin’s public ledger.Utexo would blacklist UTXOs linked to sanctioned or illicit activity rather than freeze addresses, and it plans to expand USDT to Bitcoin’s Lightning Network after the initial launch.“It’s coming home,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino proclaimed on X last week, referring to the return of his company’s stablecoin, USDT, to the Bitcoin network.
Tether’s USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin with a market cap of nearly $190 billion, began life on Bitcoin in 2014 on its Omi protocol, before Ethereum and later Tron became its primary venues.
USDT is now set to return to the world’s oldest blockchain through Tether-backed infrastructure project Utexo, which is expected to begin issuing the world's largest stablecoin on the Bitcoin network this month.
Utexo, which was founded in 2025 and raised $7.5 million in funding earlier this year, has been granted the commercial license to issue USDT on Bitcoin, using the stablecoin’s trademark to bring it to exchanges, wallets and payment providers, Utexo co-founder Viktor Ihnatiuk told CoinDesk in a Telegram message.
“Tether has always been a Bitcoin company,” Ihnatiuk told CoinDesk in a recent interview. “Bitcoin for them is a stability haven, along with gold. That’s why Tether kept buying BTC and supporting the Bitcoin community.”
Tether holds around 100,000 BTC ($8.4 billion) as of mid-August this year, according to Bitcoin Treasuries.
“I can’t speak for Tether directly, but my personal observation is that Bitcoin is a big priority for them, and it’s our job to make USDT as accessible on Bitcoin as it is everywhere else,” Ihnatiuk added.
Privacy twistUtexo’s aims to accomplish this by creating an architecture for the stablecoin that is more confidential than its equivalent on Ethereum or Tron.
Its RGB protocol will employ client-site validation to keep transaction data largely off Bitcoin’s public ledger, with ownership anchored in unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs), the chunks of bitcoin left over from transactions, similar to change from a cash purchase.
While networks like Ethereum and Tron rely on account-based models that share balance updates and transactions on public ledgers, Utexo’s architecture takes a different approach. Combining RGB’s client-side validation with Bitcoin’s UTXO model means transaction details stay entirely off-chain between the counterparties involved, using Bitcoin’s ledger solely to cryptographically demonstrate proof of ownership.
Utexo will issue USDT on Bitcoin, providing the infrastructure for exchanges, wallet providers and payment companies to offer services through APIs, SDKs and cloud.
There are three primary use cases, according to Utexo: private USDT transfers; direct swaps between native BTC and USDT without routing through an exchange; and lending, in which borrowers can use native bitcoin as collateral without wrapping it on another blockchain (as is the case with tokens like WBTC).
The privacy use case comes with an important qualification.
RGB assets ultimately sit against Bitcoin UTXOs, meaning Utexo cannot technically freeze one in the same manner that Tether can freeze an Ethereum address. Instead, Utexo would maintain a blacklist of UTXOs associated with sanctioned or illicit activity and distribute that information to exchanges and other providers.
“The UTXO will just become unredeemable, so nobody would be able to send it back to a bridge or minting tool or withdraw it to Ethereum or Tron,” Ihnatiuk said.
Once USDT issuance is live on Bitcoin next month, Utexo’s next step will be to extend to Lightning, the layer-2 network designed to enable faster, cheaper payments on Bitcoin.
The goal there may be to make USDT a token for paying fees (or gas) on Lightning, similar to how USDC, the second-largest stablecoin, is being used on Arc, the new blockchain network developed by USDC issuer Circle.
AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.
12345678910The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific
The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
Sep 15, 2026
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
Why it matters:
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
Američtí žalobci zabavili téměř 84 milionů USD z účtů a kryptopeněženek spojených s montanskou platební firmou Capstone kvůli podezření z podvodu. Zásah se týká i asi 1,2 milionu USD v USDT.
U.S. prosecutors have seized nearly $84 million from bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets tied to a Montana payments firm linked to Tether.
The civil forfeiture targets Capstone, a money services business that allegedly posed as an information technology company to open accounts at major banks while moving money for crypto firms, reports Reuters.
Court filings say Capstone, registered in Montana, processed payments for two crypto companies through a bank in Dominica. Prosecutors say the firm also ran a scheme that converted fraud proceeds into crypto by posing as FBI agents.
Nearly $81 million was seized from Capstone accounts at Wells Fargo and about $2 million from an account at JPMorgan Chase. Roughly $1.2 million worth of Tether’s dollar-pegged token was taken as well, according to the July filing first reported by The Information.
Tether said it was a customer of the Dominica bank and that its assets there were limited. A spokesperson addressed Capstone’s alleged conduct.
“Tether had no knowledge of the conduct by Capstone alleged by the Department of Justice.”
The Justice Department did not allege wrongdoing by Tether or the other firms involved. Spokespeople for Wells Fargo and JPMorgan declined to comment.
A lawyer for Capstone told Reuters the firm denies wrongdoing and plans to challenge the complaint.
Tether issues USDT, a dollar-pegged cryptocurrency used to move value on crypto networks.
The cryptocurrency market advanced early Friday evening, with Bitcoin climbing to $86,688—up 3.38% over 24 hours—after the latest US Non-Farm Payrolls data showed job growth of just 29,000, missing forecasts of 84,000 to 90,000. Unemployment edged higher to 4.2%, and total crypto market capitalization kept within the $2.94 to $3.03 trillion range as traders took stock of macroeconomic signals and sector developments.
Institutional flows and ETF performance reinforce market momentumBitcoin’s move was echoed by positive trends among institutional products. SoSoValue reported that spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of $103 million. BlackRock’s IBIT performed strongly with $196 million in new capital, counterbalancing an outflow of $61 million from Fidelity’s FBTC. In contrast, Ether ETFs saw daily net outflows totaling $55 million.
Ethereum itself broke out from a prolonged sideways price range, increasing 1.69% to $2,749.47, mirroring wider optimism driven by new market catalysts and infrastructure changes.
The total value locked across major cryptocurrencies reflected these shifts, as capital rotated between key assets aligned with developing headlines in Washington and on global exchanges.
AssetPrice24h ChangeMarket ShareBitcoin (BTC)$86,688+3.38%59.10%Ethereum (ETH)$2,749+1.69%11.39%Solana (SOL)$122.62+4.18%N/AXRP$1.5444+3.57%N/A“It’s coming home”: Tether launches USDT on Bitcoin with UtexoTether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, is returning USDT to the Bitcoin blockchain through Utexo, a platform specializing in integrating USD-backed tokens on Bitcoin-based networks. Utexo completed a $7.5 million seed funding round, co-led by Tether, alongside Portal Ventures and Big Brain Holdings.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino actively supported the initiative, referencing the launch with the phrase, “It’s coming home.” Utexo seeks to expand USDT’s reach by leveraging Bitcoin’s native infrastructure, combining technologies such as RGB and Lightning Network.
Backers expect Utexo’s RGB implementation in October 2026 to transform Bitcoin into a settlement channel for dollar-denominated transactions, shifting its role beyond a store of value.
Utexo’s co-founder Viktor Ignatyuk stated that the company is in discussions with Morgan Stanley to facilitate broader integration into mainstream banking custody. Hundreds of exchanges and wallet providers have shown interest in the development.
Currently, nearly $184 billion USDT circulates, representing about 60% of the global stablecoin market, while much of the remaining supply resides on Ethereum and Tron. By comparison, tokenized USDT activity on Bitcoin has been minimal due to technological limitations on legacy networks such as Omni Layer. The new initiative could address Bitcoin’s tiny share of stablecoin volume and restore its relevance in this segment.
Mini dictionary: Utexo is a technology company specializing in deploying stablecoins and digital assets on Bitcoin using the RGB protocol and Lightning Network, which enables the issuance and transfer of digital tokens on top of Bitcoin in a scalable manner.
Regulatory shifts, M&A activity, and Solana’s RWA milestoneUS regulators are signaling an easing of the policy climate for digital asset firms. On her last day in office, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce joined new SEC Chair Paul Atkins and Commissioner Mark Uyeda in proposing new rules for digital asset custody. The reforms would allow registered investment advisers and funds to use state-chartered trust firms and some degree of self-custody, provided robust cybersecurity standards are met.
Simultaneously, the SEC and CFTC are drafting joint rules to supersede the stalled CLARITY Act. Paul Atkins acknowledged the maturation of crypto assets into a trillion-dollar market. Other regulatory measures, including the Federal Reserve’s GENIUS Act and the Innovation Exemption for NMS, remain in force until at least 2031.
Utexo’s seed raise and Armada’s Nasdaq debut capped a week of major US policy and market structure changes, creating new opportunities for institutional participation.
The merger of Armada Acquisition Corp. II and Evernorth received shareholder approval, and the combined entity will debut on Nasdaq under the ticker XRPN on October 8. The firm will hold 473 million XRP, valued at about $730 million. As anticipation built, XRP rose 3.57% to $1.5444.
Concurrently, Solana reached a record 1.2 million wallets holding tokenized stocks, with 775,000 new unique addresses added in September. This surge brought Solana’s market share of on-chain real-world asset (RWA) activity to 95%. The SOL token rallied by 4.18% to $122.62.
By contrast, AI-themed crypto assets—such as NEAR, Bittensor (TAO), and Render—underperformed, while Quant (QNT) dropped 16% to $250 following the realization that its integration into The Clearing House system did not require the asset itself, impacting investor sentiment. SHIB coin continued to trade within a tight range, showing minimal reaction to market trends.
Mini dictionary: The Clearing House is a US-based entity that operates payment systems for banks and financial institutions, providing critical infrastructure for interbank transactions.
Derivatives market squeeze and key trading levelsHigh volatility dominated the crypto derivatives market, as total liquidations hit $362.77 million in 24 hours. Nearly $269.87 million of these losses affected short positions, signifying a challenging environment for bearish traders. Around 79,443 traders saw positions forcibly closed in this liquidation cascade.
Open interest in Bitcoin futures reached 653,000 BTC, equating to $56 billion, amid a tripling of funding rates—a sign of increased leveraged bullish bets rather than direct spot purchases.
Key LevelBTC ValueETH ValueSupport$82,600$2,635–$2,660Resistance$87,200–$87,600$2,740–$2,800Critical liquidation trigger$75,800 (>$6.7B long liquidations)$2,420 (>$4.17B long liquidations)On-chain data from CryptoQuant indicated a 40% spike in monthly stablecoin inflows to Binance from addresses holding over $1 million, providing fresh buying power for possible price corrections.
The macroeconomic outlook, centered around weaker jobs growth and unemployment at 4.2%, lessens expectations for a Federal Reserve rate hike in October, while the ISM PMI price index at 77.9 adds potential inflationary pressure. Citigroup’s year-end price targets remained key psychological reference points with $113,000 for Bitcoin and $3,028 for Ethereum, supporting sentiment in the wake of today’s developments.
OFAC sankcionoval 10 cílů napojených na Tren de Aragua. Mezi nimi bylo 7 kryptoměnových adres napojených na vůdce Tren de Aragua „Prometheus“ a jeho síť praní peněz. Adresy podle TRM Labs přijaly asi 6,1 milionu dolarů od března 2022.
The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned 10 targets on Wednesday. They are tied to an ATM jackpotting scheme run by Tren de Aragua (TdA).
The network allegedly washed the stolen cash through cryptocurrency, among other channels. The action also listed 7 crypto addresses belonging to ringleader “Prometheus,” an FBI Most Wanted fugitive, and his associates.
Inside Tren de Aragua’s Alleged ATM Jackpotting PlaybookTdA originated in Venezuela, and the State Department designated it a Foreign Terrorist Organization in February 2025. According to Treasury, ATM fraud has since become a key revenue source for the group.
Jackpotting attacks use malware to make ATMs release cash without debiting any account. Court filings in Nebraska name the strain as Ploutus, which was set to erase itself after each attack.
Treasury identifies Prometheus as Anibal Alexander Canelon Aguirre, the alleged engineer of that malware. He sits on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list and faces charges in Nebraska federal court.
Treasury said reported US losses from alleged jackpotting attacks reached $40.73 million as of August 2025. That total spans more than 1,500 incidents.
OFAC separately sanctioned Juan Gabriel Rivas Nunez, a senior TdA leader linked to illicit gold mining.
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How the Sanctioned Wallets Tie Into Wider Laundering NetworksTRM Labs says each of the 7 addresses is a deposit account held at a centralized exchange. They took in about $6.1 million since March 2022, though TRM notes not all of it necessarily ties to jackpotting.
The addresses also sent funds to other TdA-linked wallets. Those wallets, in turn, moved roughly $35 million to a network US authorities link to Jorge Figueira. Figueira, a Venezuelan national, faces charges of laundering about $1 billion and has not been convicted.
Separately, Chainalysis found the wallets’ counterparties had exposure to a laundering network used by Colombian and Mexican cartels. Chainalysis Senior Intelligence Analyst Kaitlin Martin described the pattern.
“The on-chain insights show us that criminal organizations are leveraging common infrastructure for laundering,” Martin said.
Chainalysis added that these networks rely heavily on stablecoins. Tether had previously frozen Tether (USDT) balances on several wallets exposed to the newly sanctioned addresses.
Because OFAC used Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, foreign financial institutions knowingly handling significant transactions for designees risk secondary sanctions. Meanwhile, TRM said the exchange hosting all 7 addresses may be able to identify the account holders behind them.
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Senátní vyšetřování uvádí, že Írán využívá USDT od Tetheru k obcházení sankcí a financování proxy skupin včetně Hizballáhu. Z 846 sankcionovaných peněženek obchodovalo 84 % téměř výhradně v USDT.
Iran has been leaning on Tether’s dollar-pegged USDT to dodge a U.S. sanctions dragnet and move money for the regime and proxies such as Hezbollah, according to a new Senate Democrats report.
The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations says the token has become a primary payment rail for Tehran and a funding tool for terrorist proxy groups, reports The Wall Street Journal, which viewed a copy of the findings.
Tether’s USDT accounts for about 60% of all stablecoins by market capitalization. Because the token tracks the dollar, it is less volatile than other crypto — making it useful for payments and, the Journal notes, for money laundering.
Treasury has been tightening the economic squeeze since U.S. military strikes in Iran earlier this year, including August’s Operation Economic Outcast.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) led the probe, which reviewed 846 wallets sanctioned by the U.S. and Israeli governments over Iran ties and found that 84% of them traded exclusively or almost exclusively in USDT.
Blumenthal told the Journal the report “exposes how Tether and its flagship token have become central to Iran’s shadow banking system, allowing the Iranian government to fund its regional proxies, commit human-rights abuses, and pursue hostile drone and missile programs as they defy our sanctions regime.”
A Tether spokesman did not return requests for comment. The company has worked with law enforcement to freeze some regime-linked wallets.
Iran may be easing off: TRM Labs data shows USDT’s share of volume in Iran-attributed wallets fell from 72% in 2024 to 67% in 2025, and to 14% of on-chain volume in August.
Tether spolu se Shiga spouští v Africe a GCC self-custody finanční produkty postavené na WDK. Cílí na jednotlivce, firmy i instituce a umožní držet a převádět USD₮, Bitcoin a XAU₮.
Tether, the largest company in the digital asset industry, said on Sunday, September 28, that it is working with Shiga to bring self-custodial financial products to individuals, businesses and institutions across Africa and the Gulf Cooperation Council, according to a company announcement. The initiative, built on Tether’s open-source Wallet Development Kit (WDK), builds on the stablecoin issuer’s 2025 strategic investment in Shiga and marks the next phase of its push to expand blockchain-based financial infrastructure and USD₮ access across the two regions.
ENTA and Pulse target consumers and institutions Tether and Shiga will roll the effort out through two products. ENTA will let individuals, high-net-worth users and businesses fund self-custodial wallets with local currency, U.S. dollars or Bitcoin, then hold and transfer USD₮, Bitcoin and XAU₮. Pulse will enable banks, fintech companies and other institutions to build digital asset products around specific payment corridors, treasury operations and settlement flows, tailored to the way each institution moves money rather than a generic wallet interface.
WDK powers both offerings WDK provides the open-source wallet infrastructure underlying both products, letting Shiga support the blockchain networks available through WDK from a single integration, with built-in USDT0 technology, DeFi primitives and cross-chain interoperability. Tether framed the move as a response to currency volatility and costly remittances, noting the average cost of sending money to Sub-Saharan Africa reached 8.46% in 2025. “WDK gives companies the tools to build financial products that keep users in control of their assets,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether. “Together with Shiga, we are bringing that infrastructure to markets where people and businesses face real challenges protecting savings and moving money across borders.”
Nigeria licence nears final approval Shiga is completing the final stage of approval for a Digital Asset Intermediary licence in Nigeria, which, subject to final approval, would authorize regulated digital asset dealing, broking and custody services to individuals and institutions in the country. Shiga said it will also run ENTA on the same underlying platform it offers to external clients, giving prospective partners a live example of the infrastructure in operation. The expansion extends Tether’s wallet tooling for developers and adds to the institutional stablecoin rails that corporate clients are already adopting.
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Binance Pay je nyní dostupný u obchodníků PayPay v Japonsku a zahraniční návštěvníci mohou od 30. září 2026 při platbě utrácet USDT. Obchodníci dostanou jen japonský jen.
Binance Pay is now live at PayPay-supported merchants across Japan. Starting September 30, 2026, eligible overseas visitors can spend their crypto balances at checkout.
Merchants still receive Japanese yen. Binance Pay becomes the first crypto payment service to access PayPay merchants through HIVEX, a federated payment framework developed by TBCASoft. No merchant opt-in is required.
Tourists Pay in Crypto, Merchants Settle in Yen The integration works through HIVEX, the same framework that already connects nine overseas QR payment services, mainly from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, to Japan’s PayPay merchant base.
Overseas Binance users scan a PayPay QR code or present a payment code. The system converts crypto to yen at the point of sale. The cashier never holds digital assets.
Both consumer-presented mode (CPM) and merchant-presented mode (MPM) are supported. Binance says zero gas fees apply at checkout.
The pool of eligible users spans approximately 48 million Binance Pay users across 100+ countries, as of June 1, 2026. Japan residents and Binance Japan account holders are excluded.
To sweeten the launch, Binance is offering a limited-time 10% instant discount at PayPay merchants for eligible overseas users.
PayPay covers millions of locations nationwide, convenience stores, restaurants, supermarkets, shopping malls, and transit stations.
Japan recorded 42.7 million international arrivals in 2025, with 3.1 million foreign visitors in August 2026 alone. That tourist pipeline is the product’s core market.
The model mirrors a trend gaining pace across the industry. Coinbase recently partnered with Citi to expand stablecoin payment access for corporates, under a structure where merchants receive fiat while customers pay in stablecoins.
Binance’s Japan launch follows that same logic at the consumer checkout level.
Japan’s stablecoin infrastructure has been building toward this. JPYC secured $38 million in a Series B extension, backing in-store stablecoin trials with Lawson.
The Japan FSA also outlined plans for a tax-filing exemption on trust-based stablecoins, signaling that regulators are loosening their grip on retail crypto spending.
The Bigger Binance Play Behind the Tourist Feature This launch is not a one-off tourism campaign. It sits inside a broader Binance stablecoin distribution strategy.
Binance bought $100 million in Circle shares and expanded its USDC partnership earlier this month. The PayPay deal adds a high-traffic yen-rail checkout to that push.
The corporate context matters too. PayPay took a 40% stake in Binance Japan in October 2025. That deal also allowed PayPay Money deposits and withdrawals for local Japanese users.
The September 30 integration is the inbound counterpart, routing global crypto balances into the same yen rails PayPay already runs for domestic users.
Competitors are building rival spend rails. SoFi and Mastercard launched stablecoin settlement using SoFiUSD, and Ripple and SBI completed a direct Japan–Korea stablecoin transfer pilot.
The race to own the crypto-to-fiat checkout layer in Asia’s major economies is accelerating.
One risk worth noting: USDT faces scrutiny beyond Japan. A U.S. Senate probe found USDT was used in Iran-linked wallets.
Tether says it froze roughly $550 million this year. That compliance cloud hangs over any USDT expansion, even one structured as a tourist convenience product.
MAX spustila nativní podporu Tether USDT na Aptos pro vklady, výběry i konverze TWD. Vklady a výběry byly spuštěny 29. září, nové obchodní páry mají být spuštěny 30. září v 15:00 GMT+8.
MAX Digital Asset Exchange, the MaiCoin Group-operated platform that dominates Taiwan’s TWD-denominated crypto trading market, has rolled out support for native Tether USDT on the Aptos blockchain. Deposits and withdrawals went live on September 29, with new trading pairs scheduled to open on September 30 at 15:00 GMT+8.
What MAX is actually launching The integration covers both on-ramp and off-ramp functionality. Users deposit TWD, buy USDT that lives natively on Aptos, and withdraw it to an Aptos wallet. The reverse works too. No wrapped assets, no cross-chain bridges acting as middlemen.
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Alongside the Aptos USDT support, MAX is listing several new trading pairs. HYPE, GRAM, APT, and RENDER are all scheduled to go live for trading on September 30.
One important caveat that MAX has flagged: users need to select the correct Aptos network when initiating deposits. Sending tokens on the wrong network can result in permanent asset loss.
Why native USDT matters more than it sounds Native USDT is issued directly by Tether on the target blockchain. Aptos got this treatment in late 2024, when Tether began minting USDT natively on the network. Since then, major exchanges including Binance and Bithumb have added support for Aptos-native USDT.
Taiwan’s evolving crypto landscape In Taiwan, TWD-denominated trading pairs serve a different function than they might in larger markets. Because the Taiwanese Dollar is not as widely supported by global exchanges as the US Dollar, Euro, or Japanese Yen, local platforms like MAX fill a critical gap.
MaiCoin Group, which operates MAX, has positioned the exchange as a compliance-focused platform in a region where regulatory clarity around digital assets continues to develop. The group also issues its own utility token, MAX, which provides trading fee discounts on the platform.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Kaye Quema. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Americký Senát uvedl, že íránský režim masivně využíval USDT od Tetheru k obcházení sankcí. Íránská centrální banka měla nashromáždit nejméně 507 milionů USDT.
The US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has turned its spotlight on the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, finding that the Iranian regime widely used Tether’s USDT token to evade international sanctions. The inquiry, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, lays out a trail of hundreds of millions of dollars in USDT flowing through wallets connected to Iranian oil transactions, the country’s central bank, and entities aligned with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran’s Central Bank has reportedly accumulated at least $507 million in USDT to keep its economy functioning under heavy financial restrictions.
The paper trail and the crackdown The investigation draws on blockchain analysis and reporting from The Wall Street Journal and Fortune, which documented USDT transfers tied to illegal Iranian oil sales and support for IRGC-linked groups. On June 4, 2026, Blumenthal sent a formal records demand to Tether seeking documentation about USDT’s role in Iranian and Russian shadow banking networks.
That demand came just two days after the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges: Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex. OFAC cited ties between those platforms and IRGC money laundering operations, effectively cutting them off from the legitimate financial system.
On September 14, 2026, the Department of Justice filed a civil forfeiture complaint in New York seeking to seize approximately $61.2 million in USDT from wallets that processed illicit proceeds from Iranian black-market oil sales. The complaint alleges those funds directly benefited the Iranian government.
All of this falls under an umbrella operation the government has dubbed “Operation Economic Fury.” Since April 2026, nearly $1 billion in Iran-linked digital assets have been sanctioned or frozen under the initiative.
Tether’s response: cooperation or damage control? Tether froze over $344 million in USDT in April 2026 tied to wallets linked to Iran’s Central Bank. It followed that up with an additional $131 million freeze in July 2026 targeting the same network.
Combined, those freezes represent roughly $475 million in sanctioned assets that Tether locked at the token level. The ability to freeze specific wallets is a feature baked into Tether’s smart contract. The gap between “we freeze assets when told to” and “we proactively prevent sanctions evasion” is the exact territory this Senate investigation is probing.
Disclosure: This article was edited by John Chen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Tether uvedl, že v roce 2026 pomohl zmrazit celkem 550 milionů USD v USDT napojených na íránské finanční sítě. Zásah mířil na peněženky spojené s centrální bankou Íránu a IRGC.
@Tether has confirmed it helped freeze a cumulative $550 million in $USDT linked to Iranian financial networks in 2026, acting alongside the US Treasury and its sanctions enforcement arm, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The actions target wallets connected to both the Central Bank of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
A Year of Escalating Freezes The total has built up across two major enforcement actions.
The April freeze was the larger of the two. The July action followed a fresh OFAC designation.
Operation Economic Outcast and Broader Compliance The freezes sit within a wider US campaign.
The company has positioned itself as an active enforcement partner rather than a passive participant. Those relationships now extend to agencies including the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Secret Service.
, a capability that has made $USDT a central tool in US sanctions policy toward Iran.
Sources:
Securities.io: Tether Says 2026 Iran-Linked USDT Freezes Total About $550 Million
CoinDesk: Tether's $344 Million USDT Freeze Linked to US Economic Fury Against Iran
TRM Labs: OFAC Sanctions Crypto Addresses Associated with the Central Bank of Iran
Tether a Shiga plánují pro Afriku a GCC self-custody peněženky pro USD₮, Bitcoin a Tether Gold. ENTA míří na jednotlivce a firmy, Pulse na banky a fintech.
Tether and Shiga have announced plans to bring self-custodial wallets for USD₮, Bitcoin, and Tether Gold to individuals and institutions across Africa and the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Summary
Shiga plans two products: ENTA for individuals and businesses, and Pulse for banks and fintech companies. Users will be able to fund ENTA wallets with local currency, U.S. dollars, or Bitcoin. Institutional clients can use Shiga-managed infrastructure or run the wallet software in their own environment. Shiga says its Nigerian Digital Asset Intermediary licence remains subject to final approval. Tether said in its Sep. 28 announcement that both products will use its open-source Wallet Development Kit, or WDK. Shiga will offer one product directly to users and another to institutions building payment and treasury services for their customers.
The plan extends a relationship that began with Tether’s investment in Shiga Digital in June 2025. At the time, crypto.news covered the investment and Shiga’s existing services for African businesses, including virtual accounts, foreign exchange, treasury management and over-the-counter transactions.
Shiga’s ENTA will put three assets in user-controlled wallets Under the new plan, ENTA will serve individuals, high-net-worth users and businesses. Tether said customers will be able to add funds using local currency, U.S. dollars, or Bitcoin, then hold and transfer USD₮, Bitcoin and XAU₮ from self-custodial wallets.
The funding options and the assets held in the wallet serve different roles. A customer adding local currency, for example, would use it to fund access to the supported digital assets; the announcement does not say that ENTA will hold local currency as a wallet asset. Tether also did not give a launch date, list the countries where ENTA will first be available, or set out the fees customers would pay.
Shiga’s focus on cross-border transfers comes amid high remittance costs in the region. The World Bank’s remittance price report put the average cost of sending money to Sub-Saharan Africa at 8.46% in the third quarter of 2025, the highest average among the receiving regions it tracked. Neither Tether nor Shiga provided a comparable cost estimate for transfers through ENTA.
Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino said WDK would let companies build products in which users retain control of their assets.
“Together with Shiga, we are bringing that infrastructure to markets where people and businesses face real challenges protecting savings and moving money across borders,” Ardoino said.
The three-asset approach gives customers access to a dollar-linked token, Bitcoin and tokenized gold within the planned product. Tether has also worked with Opera on MiniPay, a separate self-custodial wallet serving markets that include Africa. In February, the MiniPay wallet expansion added access to USD₮ and tokenized gold, according to the companies’ announcement covered by crypto.news.
Pulse will let institutions choose where to run the software For banks, fintech companies and other institutional clients, Shiga plans to offer Pulse as a platform they can adapt to payment corridors, treasury work and settlement flows. Chief executive Abiola Shogbeni said the company would tailor the product to each institution’s operations instead of supplying the same wallet interface to every client.
Tether said institutions will have two deployment choices. They can use WDK infrastructure managed by Shiga, or operate it in their own environment while keeping control of their keys, data, and funds. The second option is intended for clients with requirements governing where data is held and who controls the systems used to sign transactions.
WDK supplies the wallet software beneath both ENTA and Pulse. According to Tether, a single integration will allow Shiga to support the blockchain networks available through the toolkit. Tether describes WDK as open-source infrastructure for building self-custodial wallets, with support for assets including Bitcoin, USD₮ and XAU₮.
The institutional product is planned for the Africa–GCC corridor, but Tether has not named a bank or fintech company that has agreed to deploy Pulse. The announcement also does not identify an initial payment corridor or transaction volume for either product.
Within the Gulf, XAU₮ already has a specific regulatory designation in Abu Dhabi Global Market. In July, Abu Dhabi recognized XAU₮ as an Accepted Spot Commodity. That status permits firms with the relevant ADGM approvals to provide services involving the token; it does not grant Shiga or every firm in the financial center automatic approval.
Nigerian licence remains under review Shiga chief operating officer Dami Etomi said the company is in the final stage of approval for a Digital Asset Intermediary licence in Nigeria. If approved, the licence would authorize Shiga to provide regulated digital asset dealing, broking and custody services to individuals and institutions in the country. Shiga has not said that it holds the licence yet.
Etomi also said Shiga will operate ENTA on the platform it offers to institutional clients. Prospective Pulse customers would therefore be able to examine a live Shiga product using the underlying infrastructure, although the company has not specified when ENTA will go live.
For U.S. readers, the announcement concerns products planned for Africa and the GCC; it does not announce U.S. availability. U.S. Treasury’s August rulemaking proposal separately addresses when U.S. digital asset service providers may offer foreign-issued payment stablecoins. Tether and Shiga did not describe the planned products’ U.S. access or their treatment under that proposed rule.
Binance Wallet nově umožňuje platit poplatky za gas v USDT na BNB Smart Chain, Ethereum, Solana a TRON, takže už není nutné držet nativní tokeny těchto sítí.
Binance Wallet has added USDT gas-fee payments on four blockchain networks as of Sept. 25, allowing users to transact without first holding each chain’s native gas token.
Summary
Binance Wallet now lets users pay blockchain gas fees with USDT across four supported networks. BNB Smart Chain, Ethereum, Solana and TRON support the new USDT gas payment option today. Users can alternatively fund gas from Binance Exchange balances holding supported assets across eligible networks. Binance says network fees still go to blockchain validators, not directly to the company itself. TRON users can receive zero gas fees through December 22 under a separate promotional program. According to Binance’s updated support documentation Binance Wallet gas-fee guide, the option currently works on BNB Smart Chain, Ethereum, Solana and TRON. Users with USDT in Binance Wallet can select the stablecoin to cover the network fee when completing supported transactions.
Previously, users generally needed BNB for transactions on BNB Smart Chain, ETH on Ethereum, SOL on Solana and TRX on TRON. A wallet without the required native token could leave the user unable to complete an on-chain transaction even when it held the asset being transferred.
Binance Wallet Removes Native Gas Token Requirement With USDT Payments
Binance Wallet now allows users to pay gas fees with USDT on BNB Smart Chain, Ethereum, Solana and TRON, removing the need to hold each network’s native gas token before making transactions. Binance said… pic.twitter.com/6YCUDWL4Bd
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) September 28, 2026 Binance said its wallet calculates the network fee based on current blockchain conditions. The company said more networks will gain support later, though it has not provided a rollout timetable.
Binance Wallet uses USDT for gas on four networks The USDT option changes how Binance Wallet users can fund transaction costs, but it does not remove the underlying blockchain fee. Validators or other network participants still receive the network charge required to process the transaction.
Binance states in its support guide that “none of the network fee goes to Binance.” The company distinguishes blockchain gas from service fees that Binance Wallet may charge for certain products, including swaps.
Network charges remain dynamic. Binance says congestion can push fees higher on Ethereum Virtual Machine networks and Solana as users compete for transaction processing. Lower activity can reduce the amount required.
TRON operates differently through its resource model, which uses bandwidth and energy. Users can obtain resources through mechanisms such as staking TRX or renting energy. When available resources cannot cover a transaction, TRX may be burned to pay the remaining cost, according to Binance’s explanation.
For Binance Wallet users, USDT now serves as another payment method for those costs on supported chains. Binance has not said the networks themselves have changed their native fee mechanisms.
Exchange balances provide another way to cover gas Users without enough USDT in Binance Wallet can use supported balances held in their Binance Exchange accounts on the same four networks.
The official Binance support page lists BNB, USDT, USDC, ETH and SOL among assets that can be used through eligible Spot, Funding or Earn balances. Users select the Exchange Account option when choosing how the network fee will be paid.
Binance lists several other routes when neither wallet USDT nor an eligible exchange balance is available. Users can transfer the required gas token from Binance Exchange, receive it from another wallet or buy supported assets using a bank card.
A separate option lets eligible users draw BNB from their Spot or Funding Account for gas on BNB Smart Chain, Ethereum and opBNB. Binance says users need more than 0.01 BNB in the relevant account before selecting that payment method.
The company continues to warn users to select the correct blockchain when moving assets between Binance and another wallet. Its withdrawal guide says choosing an incompatible network can result in assets becoming unrecoverable.
TRON users get a separate zero-gas offer The rollout follows a separate Binance Wallet promotion for transfers on TRON.
Starting Sept. 23, eligible users can receive zero gas fees when sending USDT and other TRC-20 tokens through Binance Wallet. The campaign runs through Dec. 22, 2026, according to a Binance Wallet announcement.
Binance said the offer is supported by TRON DAO and remains subject to available campaign spots. After the promotional period, the company said qualifying transfers will receive a discounted fee of 1 USDT per transaction.
To use the promotion, users start a transfer through Binance Wallet, select the token and destination, then choose the network-fee payer when signing the transaction. USDT can be selected as the payment method before confirmation.
The TRON promotion and the four-network USDT feature cover related transaction costs under different terms. The support documentation presents USDT as a payment option for gas on BNB Smart Chain, Ethereum, Solana and TRON, while the TRON campaign temporarily reduces eligible TRC-20 transfer charges to zero.
Binance Wallet has been reducing transaction friction Binance has made several changes to its self-custody wallet since renaming Binance Web3 Wallet in December 2024.
As crypto.news previously reported, the rebranded Binance Wallet introduced a unified wallet interface and changes to asset management and its airdrop section. Binance said at the time that upgrades would arrive in several stages.
Network fees remained separate from trading fees in later wallet promotions. In February 2025, Binance waived trading charges on eligible wallet swaps, while users still had to pay blockchain gas fees, as crypto.news reported.
Binance Wallet has since expanded the number of services available through the self-custody product. In April 2026, the wallet introduced perpetual futures trading through its app and web interface, with an Alpha Points campaign tied to trading volume, according to related crypto.news coverage.
By May, Binance Wallet had integrated Event Rush on BNB Chain, where verified users could trade tokens linked to event outcomes using USDT. The service operates through a third-party decentralized application and is restricted in some regions, as crypto.news reported.
Binance’s current documentation identifies Binance Wallet as a self-custody product provided by Binance Barbados Limited. The company states that the wallet services are not supervised by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority or another regulatory authority.
Binance investovala 100 milionů USD do Circle a uzavřela pětiletou dohodu o podpoře a integraci USDC. Analytici říkají, že to může posílit USDC v závodě se stablecoinem Tether.
Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO, Circle (CoinDesk)Summary
Binance's $100 million stake and tie-up gives Circle a powerful distribution channel in markets where USDT is deeply entrenched, analysts said.USDC trading on Binance has already surged since the companies first partnered in 2024, Kaiko data shows.Tether still benefits from deeper local liquidity and long-standing user habits, limiting how quickly market share could shift, CEO of market maker Gravity Labs noted.Circle’s expanded deal with Binance could give USDC USDC$0.9998 more traction in emerging markets and global trading, analysts said, while putting some additional pressure on Tether’s long-held lead in the dollar-denominated stablecoin race.
Binance invested $100 million in Circle CRCL$87.37·Market Closed shares and signed a new five-year commercial agreement to promote and integrate USDC across its platform. The arrangement gives Binance a direct stake in Circle’s growth while giving Circle wider distribution through one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges.
“This optimizes the relationship and further aligns Binance's interests with Circle's, echoing Circle-Coinbase's distributor-shareholder model,” Clear Street analyst Owen Lau told CoinDesk.
Binance has already become a major USDC venueThe companies’ first partnership, announced in December 2024, has already changed how USDC trades on Binance.
The exchange offered 140 USDC-quoted spot markets when the partnership began. It now has 329, according to Kaiko. That compares with a much slower increase from 39 markets in 2021 to 140 by late 2024.
Trading pairs quoted in USDC on Binance (Kaiko)Monthly USDC trading volume on Binance has also roughly doubled, rising from the $20 billion-$40 billion range before the partnership to consistently above $80 billion.
“Throughout 2026, Binance has consistently captured the largest share of USDC spot trading activity, processing $5 million-$10 billion in daily volume, roughly 10-20 times more than most other trading venues, which typically stay below $0.5 billion,” said Anastasia Melachrinos, head of research at Kaiko.
Other major exchanges have remained broadly within their previous USDC trading ranges, according to Kaiko, suggesting Binance itself has driven much of the increase.
“As Binance accelerates USDC's reach in emerging markets, that dominance is likely to grow even further,” Melachrinos said.
More pressure on TetherUSDC has a market capitalization of about $74 billion, making it the second-largest U.S. dollar stablecoin behind Tether’s roughly $140 billion USDT.
“There is a clear incentive on both sides to grow USDC through Binance’s user base and infrastructure,” said Martins Benkitis, co-founder and CEO of Gravity Team.
Circle has also been building beyond stablecoin issuance. Its Circle Payments Network is designed to connect financial institutions for stablecoin payments, while its recently announced $400 million acquisition of Singapore-based Tazapay would add local banking relationships and payment rails across emerging markets.
The strategy comes as stablecoin competition broadens beyond Circle and Tether. Banks and payment companies including Visa, Mastercard and Stripe have been pushing further into stablecoin payments and infrastructure.
Circle also has a close commercial relationship with Coinbase, which distributes USDC and shares in its economics. Lau said the Binance agreement does not give Circle additional leverage over Coinbase, noting that Circle recently renewed that partnership.
Binance can put USDC in front of more users, but Tether’s long-established trading and payment network will make market share difficult to shift quickly.
“That puts more pressure on USDT, particularly in global trading and emerging markets, where it has built a very strong position over many years,” Benkitis said. “But distribution alone won’t change that overnight. USDT has deep trading pairs, local liquidity and, importantly, people are already used to using it.”
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12345678910The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific
The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
Sep 15, 2026
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
Why it matters:
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
Nabídka stablecoinů na Solaně dosáhla nového historického maxima 17,39 miliardy dolarů, což za 24 hodin představuje nárůst o 7,8 %. Nejvíce přispěly nové emise USDC a USDT od Circle a Tether.
Solana’s stablecoin supply has reached a new all-time high of $17.39 billion, marking another sharp expansion in dollar-backed liquidity on the network.
The total supply stood at approximately $16.13 billion yesterday, September 24, representing an increase of $1.26 billion, or 7.8%, in 24 hours.
The latest record also came only 3 days after Solana set its previous ATH. The market reached approximately $16.87 billion on September 22 before breaking above that level today.
The latest surge followed fresh issuance from the network’s 2 largest stablecoin issuers. Circle minted approximately $751 million in $USDC, while Tether minted about $530 million in $USDT on Solana over the past 24 hours.
Combined, the 2 issuers added roughly $1.28 billion in new stablecoins, slightly above the network’s net $1.26 billion increase.
$USDC Remains Largest, But Its Dominance Has Shifted $USDC currently accounts for 47.31% of Solana’s stablecoin supply, making it the network’s largest stablecoin.
That share has changed considerably in recent months.
Last week, $USDC dominance fell to approximately 44%, down from 80.3% at its February 2025 all-time high. $USDC presently accounts for $8.23 billion of the total supply. $USDT comes next with $2.66 billion.
Regulation Adds Another Layer The stablecoin expansion comes as U.S. regulators move to implement the GENIUS Act. On September 24, the Federal Reserve proposed 2 rules covering payment stablecoin issuers under its supervision. The framework would require issuers to fully back stablecoins with permitted reserve assets, including short-term Treasury bills and other high-quality liquid assets. It would also introduce capital and risk-management requirements and establish a process for Fed-supervised banks seeking approval to issue payment stablecoins.
The proposals also address stablecoin-related activities at Fed-supervised banks and certain arrangements involving rewards or yield. The Fed opened a 60-day public comment period before it considers final rules.
For Solana, the latest stablecoin supply all-time high shows how quickly dollar liquidity can expand when multiple issuers compete for activity on the same network. While USDC remains the largest individual asset, the market now contains a broader mix of stablecoins.
Read More on SolanaFloor Solana’s Rally Is Reviving DAT Stocks and Opening the Door to More $SOL Buys
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Americké úřady zabavily asi 84,2 milionu USD z účtů napojených na Capstone, který zpracovával stovky milionů dolarů pro Tether a Bitfinex. EQIBank tvrdí, že je zmrazeno zhruba 80 % jejích prostředků a hrozí jí kolaps.
The U.S. Department of Justice has seized about $84.2 million from bank accounts linked to Capstone, a payment firm that handled hundreds of millions of dollars for Tether and Bitfinex
But the seizure goes beyond the stablecoin giant, as EQIBank says around 80% of its funds are frozen and warns that its operations could collapse.
How Did Capstone Become a $700M Crypto Banking Link?Federal prosecutors filed a civil forfeiture complaint against Capstone’s accounts on July 15, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.
The case centers on Capstone Limited, a Sacramento-based company run by Kotaro Shimogori and Mary Jeanne Thompson. Prosecutors say Capstone served as a link between EQIBank and the U.S. banking system.
EQIBank, a digital bank based in Dominica, did not have a direct account with the U.S. Federal Reserve. Because of this, it relied on Capstone to help process U.S. dollar transfers.
Prosecutors allege that Capstone told U.S. banks it was an IT services company. However, they say the company was actually handling international money transfers without the required license.
The amount of money moving through Capstone was significant.
Court documents show that more than $700 million passed through one Capstone account over several months. About $337 million was then sent to hundreds of people and companies, with nearly two-thirds of that money reportedly processed for Tether and Bitfinex.
What Assets Were Seized in the Case?The DOJ’s civil forfeiture case covers money held in several bank accounts and digital wallets linked to Capstone. Federal authorities seized about $84.2 million in total, including funds held at major U.S. banks and USDT stored in two digital wallets.
The seized assets included:
$79.1 million from a Capstone account at Wells Fargo Securities.$1.86 million from a Capstone account at Wells Fargo Bank.$2.06 million from an operational account at JPMorgan Chase.1.18 million USDT from two digital wallets linked to the case.The DOJ also alleges that a cyber-fraud group used Capstone’s accounts to move stolen money. The group reportedly posed as FBI agents and converted some of the stolen funds into USDT.
Response From EQIBank, Capstone, Tether, and BitfinexFollowing the seizure EQIBank quickly filed an emergency motion in a California court to recover the frozen assets. The Dominica-based bank says the freeze has blocked around 80% of its total funds, putting its operations under serious pressure.
EQIBank warned that it could face bankruptcy and collapse if the funds remain frozen.
The bank also says it was an “innocent owner” and that Capstone misled it about its registration and operations.
Meanwhile, Capstone has denied criminal wrongdoing. Its lawyer said the company plans to challenge the government’s civil forfeiture complaint.
Tether and Bitfinex said they were unaware of Capstone’s alleged banking misrepresentations or money laundering activity.
Story Ends Here
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Circle a Tether zmrazily peněženku spojenou s hackem Bitgetu a zablokovaly asi 318 000 USD ve stablecoinech. Zbytek uloupených prostředků už byl převážně přesunut do ETH mimo jejich dosah.
In brief Circle and Tether froze a wallet tied to the Bitget hack, blacklisting roughly 99,990 USDC and 218,023 USDT (~$318,000) at the contract level; Circle acted at 05:00 UTC Friday, with Tether following via its multisig hours later. The wallet's ~170 ETH stayed untouched—issuers can freeze their own tokens but not Ethereum—and trackers show other exploiter addresses still hold 63,000+ ETH beyond reach. It's a small dent in a breach pegged at roughly $387 million, with Lazarus Group a suspected culprit and Bitget's $464 million protection fund set to cover losses. Circle and Tether have frozen a wallet linked to the massive Bitget exchange hack, cutting off roughly $318,000 in stablecoins from the attacker, though the bulk of the stolen fortune moved beyond reach before issuers could act.
Blockchain data shows Circle blacklisted the address, labeled "Bitget Exploiter 8" on Etherscan, at 05:00 UTC Friday, using the built-in freeze function in its USDC token contract.
Myriad: Where does Ethereum go next? Click to make your prediction.Roughly seven hours later, Tether followed suit, with a signer confirming a transaction on its multisig wallet that added the same address to USDT's blacklist. Together the actions locked about 99,990 USDC and 218,023 USDT in place.
The wallet also held around 170 ETH, but that portion remains untouched, underscoring the core limitation of stablecoin freezes: issuers can blacklist their own tokens at the contract level, but no one can freeze Ethereum itself.
That gap explains why so little was recovered. The attacker appears to have raced to convert freezable assets into ETH before issuers intervened, consolidating stolen tokens into fresh wallets and swapping stablecoins out within minutes.
Blockchain trackers indicate other exploiter-linked addresses still hold more than 63,000 ETH that no issuer has the authority to touch.
The freezes are a small dent in one of the year's largest exchange breaches. The Bitget hack drained hundreds of millions of dollars, with early estimates reaching $387 million, and analysts have pointed to North Korea's Lazarus Group as a possible culprit.
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen has said attackers compromised a backend system in the exchange's wallet infrastructure, spoofing transaction data to trigger unauthorized transfers, while ruling out a private-key compromise. The exchange has said a user protection fund holding more than $464 million will cover losses.
The rapid blacklisting drew notice as a faster response than some past incidents, though it also renewed a long-running debate about the centralized control issuers wield over supposedly permissionless assets.
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