Update (May 15 at 3:10 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include Tether’s opinion.
According to a new report by AMLBOT, a blockchain -compliance company, the delay of Tether’s wallet blacklist process was able to move more than $ 78 million in illegal funds before enforcement.
According to a report released on May 15, Tether’s address blacklist is effective only after significant delays from the beginning of the process in Ether Leeum and Tron.
“This delay comes from the establishment of a multi -signing agreement between TRON and ETEREUM, and the immediate compliance measures are converted into a window of opportunity for illegal actors,” he says.
Tether’s black list procedure is a multi -stage process that effectively warns the first transaction for the upcoming blacklist. First, the Tether Administrator Multisignature Transaction submits a suspended call for “AddBlacklist” in the USDT-Trc20 contract.
This resulted in the disclosure of the target address as a blacklist candidate. Next, the second multi -signature transaction to confirm the submission is followed. The “additional blacklist” discharge occurs and the blacklist is effective.
relevant: TETHER, TRON and TRM Labs jointly frozen $ 126m USDT in 2024.
Warning for the coming blacklist
In one example, in an example shared with COINTELEGRAPH, the onchain transaction, which submits a TRON address as a blacklist candidate, occurred in 11:10:12 UTC. In fact, the second transaction that took action did not occur up to 44 minutes until 11:54:51 UTC on the same day.
In fact, this delay can be posted on a blacklist with a notice of moving assets so that USDT owners do not freeze their assets. The report stated as follows.
“This delay between the freezing request and the chain execution creates a critical attack window, allowing malicious actors to execute, move or wash their turns before the freezing.”
The report says, “This delay is gold for an attacker who is familiar with the blockchain.” By tracking the tether’s call in real time, the scammer can immediately warn that the address is being targeted. When COINTELEGRAPH was asked whether the delay was a technical restriction or the behavior of the multi -signing wallet key holder, Amlbot researchers said they could not determine it without knowledge of the internal procedure of Tether.
A spokesman for Tether said in a statement on COINTELEGRAPH, “The delay of execution should be investigated, but the idea of a systematic loophole is misunderstood and lacks perspectives.” According to the company, the address is frozen every day by cooperating with the law enforcement agency. The statement continues.
“The tethers operates on a public block chain with all activities (…) This transparency can work with more than 255 law enforcement agencies in 55 countries to track, track and froze illegal funds rather than most realization.”
According to Tether, the delay cited in the report prevents unilateral freeze and protects the integrity of the system. The company also acknowledged that the model also introduced the delayed execution, and pointed out that it was a conflict of responsibility for more than $ 10 billion ecosystem.
“We are actively improving this process to eliminate the potential advantages of bad actors. If you think you can use tethers to transfer illegal funds, think again.”
relevant: TETHER Stablecoin publishers and TRON start the financial crime department.
Not only theoretical
AMLBOT says more than $ 28.5 million withdrawal from USDT during the delay between the two deals of Etherrium Blockchain. The freezing of this amount occurred between November 28, 2017 and May 12, 2025. The average amount moved during the delay was more than $ 365,000.
Similarly, it is known that $ 49.6 million withdrawal from the freezing delay in the TRON block chain, which is $ 78.1 million for Ether Leeum and TRON. According to AMLBOT, it is not particularly uncommon to exploit this delay in Tron.
“170 of TRON Blockchain’s 3,480 wallets used a delay before receiving a blacklist, each of which made 2-3 transmissions of delays.
A Tether spokesman said, “The $ 76 million mentioned in this report should be applied in more than $ 2.7 billion of USDs that have been successfully frozen to date.”
TETHER has previously promoted the ability to freeze assets with compliance. In 2024, TETHER, TRON and Analytics, TRM Labs, cooperated to freeze more than $ 122 million in USDTs related to illegal activities.
Nevertheless, the AMLBOT report raises questions about the effects and speeds of these execution measures.
magazine: China’s Tether Laundry, Bhutan recently enjoys Bitcoin Boost: Asia Express