Tether freezes $46 million $USDT stablecoin linked to an FTX wallet at the request of US law enforcement
Daniel Levi
Posted On November 10, 2022
This week is probably the beginning of the end for FTX. The crypto exchange faces a series of bad news on multiple fronts. About an hour ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that FTX tapped into customer accounts to fund risky bets.
Now Coindesk just reported that stablecoin issuer Tether has frozen $46 million of USDT linked to an FTX address FTX following a request from US law enforcement agencies.
According to Tron block explorer Tronscan, the wallet belongs to failing FTX, the crypto exchange that halted withdrawals earlier this week following liquidity issues.
“We are starting to receive requests from LE to temporarily freeze assets while an investigation occurs,” CoinDesk said, citing a Tether executive, using an acronym LE for law enforcement.
The news comes just a day after reports that FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankan-Fried is under SEC investigation relating to the liquidity crisis and handling of customer funds.
Bloomberg reported that US regulators are investigating whether FTX.com “properly handled customer funds”, as well as its relationship with other subsidiaries of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire. The ongoing investigations are being conducted by the SEC and the CFTC that relate to the liquidity crisis at the trading platform which led to the sudden and unexpected collapse of the company.
Tether is the world’s largest stablecoin that is theoretically pegged at the same value as a dollar but can be traded without following regulations on dollars. Tether is one of the commonly known coins called Stablecoins, which are virtual currencies that are always supposed to have the same real-dollar value.
Tezos was created in 2014 by husband-and-wife team Arthur and Kathleen Breitman. Tezos is the smart money, redefining what it means to hold and exchange value in a digitally connected world. A self-upgradable and energy-efficient Proof of Stake blockchain with a proven track record, Tezos seamlessly adopts tomorrow’s innovations without network disruptions today. The Tezos Foundation was founded by Johann Gevers.
