Tether immobilized more than $1.5 billion in USDT linked to the October 29 Binance hack, with CEO Paolo Ardoino saying the company acted within 30 minutes of the attack to block funds associated with North Korean hackers. The FBI later attributed the $6.3 billion theft to North Korea’s TraderTraitor group.
According to Tether, the freeze prevented stolen funds from being transferred, exchanged or laundered. The company said it works with more than 360 law enforcement agencies across 73 countries, and by October 31 it had helped U.S. authorities freeze approximately 1.6 billion USDT across 3,590 wallets. Tether also reported freezing more than $7 billion in USDT across secondary-market addresses over time, with about $1.2 billion returned to victims or law enforcement through token reissuance.
Independent blockchain data, however, raised questions about the exact timeline. A major transfer of roughly 1.615 billion USDT occurred on Ethereum at 20:24:23 UTC on October 29, while the first substantial freeze at the receiving address was recorded at 21:01:35 UTC, about 37 minutes later. Additional freezes continued until about 21:21 UTC, bringing the combined amount frozen across Ethereum and Tron to roughly $1.555 billion, plus $8.4 million on Avalanche.
Before that first major freeze, approximately $700 million had moved from the principal receiving address through two transactions. Blockchain analytics firm Bitquery separately estimated that around $729 million in stolen USDT escaped initial freezing efforts, with some converted into other cryptocurrencies and additional amounts frozen in downstream wallets. The findings do not dispute the total frozen, but suggest Tether’s stated 30-minute response time may need further clarification.
Circle separately froze more than $800 million in assets connected to the breach, and Binance reported roughly $3 billion frozen on-chain by October 30. Binance pledged to absorb customer losses using its corporate treasury and Secure Asset Fund for Users. The incident highlights both the advantages and limitations of centralized stablecoins during major thefts.
