Tether says it froze over $1.5bn in USDT within 30 minutes of Binance hack

Key points

• Tether said on 2 November that it froze more than $1.5bn in USDT within 30 minutes of the 29 October Binance attack.
• The FBI attributed the Binance theft to North Korea on 31 October, calling the activity Tradertraitor.
• Bitquery traced about $729m in stolen USDT that moved before the freezes took effect, mostly swapped into ether and TRX.

Tether says it froze more than $1.5bn in USDT within 30 minutes of the Binance hack, blocking the attackers from moving, swapping or laundering the funds. The stablecoin issuer announced the freeze on 2 November, two days after the FBI attributed the Binance theft to North Korea. Bo Hines, chief executive of Tether's US stablecoin business, said the company acted at once to stop the money reaching those behind the attack.

The FBI named the malicious cyber activity Tradertraitor on 31 October. Investigators saw stolen assets being converted mainly into ether and expected further laundering through decentralised finance platforms and instant swap services, and the bureau urged crypto businesses to block transactions tied to the addresses involved.

Stablecoin issuers can restrict transfers from specified addresses, though returning assets to victims needs further recovery work.

Binance set aside more than $6.34bn of its own funds to replace affected assets, separate from about $3bn frozen during the response. Tether said its freezing policy follows the Treasury's OFAC sanctions list and that it works with more than 360 agencies in 73 countries. It reported over $7bn frozen in secondary market addresses in total, including the Binance intervention.

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