Tether, the crypto company best known for issuing the world’s largest stablecoin, said Thursday it has frozen $344 million worth of USDT tokens across two wallets on the Tron blockchain after receiving requests from U.S. authorities.

The freeze was carried out after authorities flagged the addresses for alleged links to illicit activity, the company said in a blog post on Thursday. The action prevented further movement of the funds.

The company did not specify the nature of the activity or who controlled the wallets. Blockchain analytics firm AMLbot said the addresses appeared in scam-related documents and posts.

The move comes as debate around the role and responsibility of stablecoin issuers in stopping funds linked to illegal money transfers is back in the spotlight. The Financial Action Task Force recently warned that stablecoins are increasingly used for illicit transactions, including sanctions evasion and money laundering. Public blockchains allow transactions to be traced, while issuers retain the ability to freeze assets under certain conditions.

The issue came into focus this month following the $285 million exploit of Drift Protocol, in which attackers moved hundreds of millions of USDC stablecoin and bridged funds across chains. Critics argued that Circle (CRCL), the issuer of USDC, could have acted faster to freeze assets and limit losses, while the company said it only takes such actions when legally required or at request by law enforcement and authorities.

Tether said it works with law enforcement when wallets are tied to sanctions evasion or criminal networks, and has supported more than 2,300 cases globally across 340 agencies in 65 countries.

Tether said Thursday it has frozen $344 million in USDT across two wallet addresses on the Tron blockchain, acting on information shared by U.S. authorities about activity tied to “unlawful conduct.”

The stablecoin issuer said in a statement that the freeze, executed in coordination with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and U.S. law enforcement, prevented further movement of the funds once the addresses were identified. Tether did not specify the underlying alleged conduct.

The action lifts Tether’s cumulative cooperation with U.S. authorities to more than $2.1 billion in frozen assets, out of a global total exceeding $4.4 billion, the company said. Tether added that it now works with more than 340 law enforcement agencies across 65 countries and has supported over 2,300 cases globally, including more than 1,200 tied to U.S. agencies.

“USD₮ is not a safe haven for illicit activity,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in the announcement. “When credible links to sanctioned entities or criminal networks are identified, we act immediately and decisively.”

Ardoino added that the company combines blockchain transparency with real-time monitoring and direct coordination with law enforcement to “stop funds before they can move.”

The freeze extends a string of high-profile collaborations between Tether and U.S. authorities. The company noted that the Department of Justice has previously acknowledged its support in seizures of nearly $61 million and approximately $225 million tied to pig butchering fraud, a romance-investment scam category that is becoming more widespread.

Tether’s compliance posture has shifted markedly since 2022, when the company declined to preemptively freeze sanctioned addresses following the U.S. Treasury’s action against Tornado Cash. The issuer has since become a central player in cross-border on-chain enforcement, joining with Tron and TRM Labs in September 2024 to launch the T3 Financial Crime Unit, which had frozen more than $300 million in illicitly sourced funds as of late 2025.

The expanded enforcement footprint also coincides with tensifying U.S. regulatory pressure on stablecoin issuers. The GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025, requires payment stablecoin issuers to maintain on-chain freezing capabilities and comply with sanctions and AML rules, though final implementing regulations remain pending.

Tether launched its self-custodial wallet earlier this month and last week led a $150 million recovery plan for Drift Protocol following the Solana DEX’s April 1 exploit.

This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.

Zcash price rose around 3% on Thursday, holding above the $330 level after breaking out of a descending channel pattern.

According to data from crypto.news, Zcash (ZEC) was trading right around that $330 mark at the time of writing. This shows the token is holding onto strong gains after successfully reclaiming levels above $300. This move is particularly notable because the token continues to outperform much of the broader crypto market. 

Zcash’s latest rally is being underpinned by a confluence of catalysts that have tightened available supply while simultaneously boosting interest from both institutional and retail players. 

One of the biggest drivers behind this optimism is the application from Grayscale to convert its Zcash Trust into a spot ETF. If this is approved, it would mark the first regulated privacy-focused crypto ETF in history.

Such a development could potentially open the door for massive institutional inflows. Analysts estimate that this product could attract anywhere between $500 million and $2 billion, which would create a significant demand shock in an already tightening market.

At the same time, the Zcash ecosystem is undergoing a major structural shift. The recently launched Zcash Open Development Lab has secured $25 million in funding from major venture firms, including Paradigm, a16z, and Coinbase Ventures. This initiative signals a clear pivot toward building a broader private financial platform rather than simply remaining a niche privacy coin.

Upcoming product releases like the cashZ wallet and various upgrades to the Zashi wallet are expected to further reduce friction for private transactions and drive broader user adoption.

On-chain data also paints a very bullish picture for the asset. A significant portion of the Zcash supply is currently being removed from circulation. This is happening as a growing share of tokens is locked in shielded pools and institutional holdings.

When you combine this with the reduced issuance following the 2024 halving and additional reward allocations to development reserves, the available float continues to shrink. This sets the stage for a potential supply squeeze that could drive prices even higher.

Zcash price analysis

On the 4-hour chart, Zcash price has broken out from a descending parallel channel that had been capping its price action over the past few weeks. A breakout from a structure like this typically signals the end of a corrective phase and the start of a fresh upward trend.

The Supertrend indicator has flipped green and is now acting as dynamic support. This confirms that the short-term trend has shifted in favor of buyers. Meanwhile, the MACD has crossed into positive territory and is trending higher. This indicates that bullish momentum is strengthening after a period of consolidation.

Zcash is now approaching a key resistance zone located between $337 and $361. This area has previously acted as a liquidity barrier. A decisive move above this region could trigger a significant short squeeze. This is especially likely since a large portion of traders remain positioned on the bearish side.

If bulls manage to clear this zone, the next major upside target sits near the $400 psychological level. There is even a potential extension toward the $450 region if momentum continues to accelerate.

On the contrary, a failure to hold above the $300 support level could invalidate this breakout. Such a move might push the price back toward the $280 zone, where it has found demand in recent trading sessions.

Recent progress in quantum computing has reignited a long-standing concern for bitcoin BTC$77,571.31.

A sufficiently powerful cryptographically relevant quantum computer could, in theory, break bitcoin’s elliptic curve signatures, exposing coins with visible public keys, particularly early Satoshi-era wallets, according to bitcoin analyst James Check.

Quantum doomsayers warn that this would unleash a flood of supply and crash the market. The numbers suggest otherwise.

The threat of quantum computing is not in question.

Roughly 1.7 million BTC sit in Satoshi-era addresses that could be vulnerable under such a scenario. That is about $145 billion at current prices in potential sell pressure, which sounds catastrophic, but is in fact manageable.

During bull markets, long-term holders (investors that have held bitcoin for at least 155 days) routinely distribute between 10,000 and 30,000 BTC per day. At that pace, the entire Satoshi-era supply equates to roughly two to three months of typical profit taking. In the most recent bear market, more than 2.3 million BTC changed hands in a single quarter, exceeding the full quantum “target,” with no systemic collapse.

In addition, monthly exchange inflows approach 850,000 BTC. Derivatives markets cycle through notional volumes equivalent to the entire Satoshi stash every few days. What appears massive in isolation becomes relatively ordinary when set against bitcoin’s existing liquidity and turnover.

A sudden, concentrated release would still matter. It would likely drive volatility and could trigger a prolonged downturn, according to Check. But even that scenario assumes economically irrational behavior. Any actor capable of accessing such a trove would be incentivized to distribute gradually, likely hedging through derivatives to minimize slippage and maximize returns.

Bitcoin markets routinely absorb supply on the same order of magnitude as the P2PK era coins. The timeframe is measured in months, not years.

The real issue is not mechanical sell pressure. It is governance. The bigger issue is potentially freezing the Satoshi coins, through BIP-361, then letting everything play out as it should.