{"id":561229,"date":"2026-09-09T18:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T17:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/?p=561229"},"modified":"2026-09-09T11:45:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T10:45:51","slug":"how-tethers-45-million-crackdown-drove-southeast-asian-scam-compounds-into-an-unfreezable-decentralized-stablecoin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/how-tethers-45-million-crackdown-drove-southeast-asian-scam-compounds-into-an-unfreezable-decentralized-stablecoin\/","title":{"rendered":"How Tether&#8217;s $45 million crackdown drove Southeast Asian scam compounds into an &#8216;unfreezable&#8217; decentralized stablecoin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/companies\/tether\/\">Tether<\/a> is pursuing Xinbi Guarantee across its <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/coins\/tether\/\">USDT<\/a> payment network, freezing operational wallets as the sanctioned marketplace tries to keep transacting.<\/p>\n<p>Blockchain analytics firm Bitrace <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.bitrace.io\/xinbi-guarantee-loses-over-45-million-in-aggressive-enforcement-action-highlighting-frozen-funds-risk\/\">said<\/a> on Sept. 9 that more than $45 million in USDT had been frozen across at least 22 operational addresses linked to Xinbi, including wallets used to receive, route, and withdraw funds.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_561252\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-561252\" style=\"width: 912px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-561252\" src=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-09-114150.jpg\" alt=\"Xinbi's Tether USDT Impacted Addresses\" width=\"912\" height=\"691\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-09-114150.jpg 912w, https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-09-114150-300x227.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-09-114150-768x582.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 912px) 100vw, 912px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-561252\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Xinbi's Tether USDT Impacted Addresses (Source: Bitrace)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The action targets a network already under government scrutiny. The UK <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/uk-crackdown-on-vile-scam-centres-steps-up-with-sanctions-on-illicit-crypto-network\">sanctioned<\/a> Xinbi Guarantee in March, identifying it as a major Chinese-language crypto marketplace and money-laundering hub serving Southeast Asian scam compounds.<\/p>\n<h2>Tether targeted Xinbi's USDT infrastructure<\/h2>\n<p>The $45 million freeze reached beyond wallets simply holding <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/telegram-takes-down-35-billion-black-market-networks-but-illicit-operators-plan-comeback\/\">Xinbi-linked funds. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bitrace said the targets included recently used deposit, intermediary, and withdrawal addresses, outgoing hot wallets operated by Xinbi payment service Xpay, and wallets belonging to third parties with close financial ties to the marketplace.<\/p>\n<p>That breadth suggests the action aimed to disrupt Xinbi\u2019s ability to move money, rather than only immobilizing assets already sitting in known addresses.<\/p>\n<p>Bitrace contrasted the operation with a 2024 action against Huione Group, when about $29.6 million was frozen in a single address while other operational wallets remained usable. In Xinbi\u2019s case, restrictions spread across the infrastructure used to receive deposits, route funds, and process withdrawals.<\/p>\n<p>Xinbi responded by activating new operational addresses, but those replacements provided only a brief escape.<\/p>\n<p>Bitrace said newly activated wallets were frozen again on the evening of Sept. 8, less than 12 hours after the initial action. One replacement business address moved about 1.8 million USDT before another restriction was imposed, leaving roughly 37,839 USDT stranded.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the enforcement perimeter also extended beyond wallets directly attributed to Xinbi.<\/p>\n<p>Bitrace said third-party operators with financial links to the marketplace were caught in the freezes, including one OTC operation that processed more than $72 million over the preceding year and another whose deposits through Xinbi totaled less than $850,000.<\/p>\n<p>These actions show how\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/tether-freezes-isis-k-wallets-proving-that-stablecoins-now-side-inside-a-sanctions-machine\/\">Tether has increasingly incorporated freezing capability into its law-enforcement efforts.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The company said in April that it works with more than 340 agencies across 65 countries, while its T3 Financial Crime Unit with Tron and TRM Labs had frozen more than $450 million in illicit assets by May. Data from Stable.rip shows that the firm has blacklisted more than $4 billion in USDT.<\/p>\n<h2>Tether\u2019s wallet pursuit pushes Xinbi into \u2018unfreezable\u2019 USDD<\/h2>\n<p>With replacement <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/us-turns-stablecoin-issuer-tether-into-a-financial-weapon-against-iran-freezing-nearly-500-million\/\">USDT wallets being frozen<\/a> within hours, Xinbi has shifted its response from changing addresses to changing stablecoins.<\/p>\n<p>Bitrace <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Bitrace_team\/status\/2097346028026687741\">reported<\/a> that the marketplace told users Tether\u2019s actions prompted it to support only USDD transactions going forward, redirecting deposits to USDD rather than continuing to rebuild payment rails around USDT.<\/p>\n<p>USDD is a US dollar-denominated stablecoin with roughly $1.5 billion in circulation <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/tron-h1-2026-strategy-report-dual-engine-growth-via-defi-and-ai-delivers-record-traction\/\">across the Tron<\/a> and Ethereum blockchains.<\/p>\n<p>The switch directly targets the mechanism Tether used to disrupt Xinbi\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n<p>USDD describes itself as an overcollateralized decentralized stablecoin that operates without a central issuer capable of blacklisting individual holders. Its <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.usdd.io\/introduction\">documentation<\/a> says the token is \u201ctamper-proof and cannot be frozen,\u201d removing the address-level control Tether repeatedly exercised against Xinbi\u2019s USDT wallets.<\/p>\n<p>For Xinbi, that feature has moved from a design principle to an operational advantage. Even if investigators identify its next payment address, they cannot simply repeat the same token-level freeze that disabled the USDT held in earlier wallets.<\/p>\n<p>On-chain activity suggests Xinbi had already begun experimenting with alternative routes. Bitrace-linked analysis identified Xinbi-related funds moving through Tron\u2019s JustLend protocol and jUSDT, while other flows passed through decentralized exchanges and cross-chain infrastructure before accumulating <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/coins\/usdd\/\">USDD<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The migration creates a new constraint for an enforcement campaign that became increasingly effective while Xinbi remained dependent on Tether.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/did-tether-just-freeze-72m-in-usdt-with-link-to-hack-in-monero-money-laundering-sting\/\">Tether can blacklist USDT<\/a> as Xinbi moves from one identified wallet to another. However, it cannot impose the same restriction directly on USDD, meaning the contest now shifts from freezing the stablecoin itself to disrupting the infrastructure around it.<\/p>\n<p>Still, that does not put Xinbi beyond reach. USDD may resist address-level freezes, but acquiring, exchanging, and ultimately cashing out the token can still require interaction with centralized exchanges, bridges, OTC desks, and other services vulnerable to law-enforcement pressure.<\/p>\n<p>The next phase of the crackdown will therefore test whether Xinbi can rebuild a functioning payment network around USDD faster than investigators can target the services and counterparties that make that network usable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bitrace puts targeted Xinbi-linked holdings above $45 million as the sanctioned marketplace announces a USDD-only plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":720,"featured_media":561254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77968,11,32631],"tags":[77433,75695,76896,77781,72860],"prediction_market_topic":[],"post_folder":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.9 (Yoast SEO v21.9.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Tether&#039;s $45 million crackdown drove Southeast Asian scam compounds into an &#039;unfreezable&#039; decentralized stablecoin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bitrace puts targeted Xinbi-linked holdings above $45 million as the sanctioned marketplace announces a USDD-only plan.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/how-tethers-45-million-crackdown-drove-southeast-asian-scam-compounds-into-an-unfreezable-decentralized-stablecoin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Tether&#039;s $45 million crackdown drove Southeast Asian scam compounds into an &#039;unfreezable&#039; decentralized stablecoin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bitrace puts targeted Xinbi-linked holdings above $45 million as the sanctioned marketplace announces a USDD-only plan.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/how-tethers-45-million-crackdown-drove-southeast-asian-scam-compounds-into-an-unfreezable-decentralized-stablecoin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CryptoSlate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-09T17:20:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-09T10:45:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/xinbi-usdt-freeze-reroute.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Oluwapelumi Adejumo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cryptoslate\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cryptoslate\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Oluwapelumi Adejumo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/how-tethers-45-million-crackdown-drove-southeast-asian-scam-compounds-into-an-unfreezable-decentralized-stablecoin\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/how-tethers-45-million-crackdown-drove-southeast-asian-scam-compounds-into-an-unfreezable-decentralized-stablecoin\/\"},\"author\":{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/author\/oluwapelumi-adejumo\/#person\",\"name\":\"Oluwapelumi Adejumo\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/author\/oluwapelumi-adejumo\/\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/author\/oluwapelumi-adejumo\/\"},\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/author\/oluwapelumi-adejumo\/#authorimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/profile-oluwapelumi-adejumo-1-300x300.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/profile-oluwapelumi-adejumo-1-300x300.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Oluwapelumi Adejumo\"},\"jobTitle\":\"Senior Reporter\",\"description\":\"Oluwapelumi values Bitcoin's potential. 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