New Task Force to Combat USDT Crime on Tron as AI-Linked Scams Average $3.2 Million
Key Facts
Tron, Tether and Chainalysis launched the Digital Crimes Task Force on November 12, 2026, to disrupt illicit activity involving USDT on the Tron network, according to a report by The Block. The initiative aims to reduce the time between detecting a threat and taking law-enforcement action by gathering intelligence and coordinating with authorities to speed up asset freezes before criminals move the funds. Tron founder Justin Sun said the initiative comes as digital finance reaches more people. He added: "As digital finance reaches more people, the protections afforded to them must evolve with it." The collaboration puts the focus on the speed of information sharing and coordination in responding to crimes involving digital assets. It also links transaction analysis with work alongside law enforcement when illicit activity is suspected.
The stated priorities include investment and romance scams, hacks, terrorist financing and cyberattacks attributed to North Korea. The focus on fraud comes as Chainalysis records higher proceeds for operations with on-chain links to suppliers of artificial-intelligence tools. In 2025, those operations extracted an average of $3.2 million per operation, compared with $719,000 for operations with no such link identified, or 4.5 times more. The comparison does not describe all AI-enabled scams; it is limited to cases linked on-chain to suppliers of those tools. Chainalysis said AI-linked operations generated median daily revenues of $4,838, compared with $518 for other operations. Average daily transfers were also 35.1 versus 3.89, pointing to higher transaction activity among the group linked to AI suppliers.
Impersonation scams rose more than 1,400% year over year in 2025, according to Chainalysis, as reported by The Block. The increase comes amid a broader rise in funds received by illicit cryptocurrency addresses. Chainalysis estimated that those addresses received at least $154 billion in 2025, up 162% from the previous year. The company attributed most of the increase to a 694% jump in the value of funds received by sanctioned entities. By contrast, it said its estimate of illicit activity remained below 1% of the volume of cryptocurrency transactions it could attribute to specific addresses. These figures illustrate the scale of the challenge the participating organizations are seeking to address, amid different types of illicit activity covered by the initiative.
Tether said it had frozen more than $7 billion linked to illicit activity and worked with more than 360 law-enforcement agencies in 73 countries as of November 12, 2026. The figures provide context on the scope of the company's cooperation with authorities, but do not mean that the frozen funds were returned to victims or their owners. In a separate earlier incident, Tether said it froze more than $1.5 billion in USD₮ within 30 minutes of the Binance hack on October 29, 2026. The company linked the action to keeping the funds out of North Korea's reach. The incident highlights the speed of freezing that can be achieved in a specific case, while the new task force makes intelligence gathering and cooperation with law enforcement an announced part of its response mechanism. The launch details made public do not include a figure for assets frozen by the new task force.
The initiative follows the dissolution of the T3 Financial Crime Unit, a previous alliance between Tron, Tether and TRM Labs established in 2024, according to The Block. The new collaboration replaces an earlier financial-crime arrangement, with Chainalysis joining the current partnership. The announced operating model remains based on gathering intelligence and cooperating with authorities to speed up asset freezes, while the targeted cases range from fraud and hacks to terrorist financing and cyberattacks. In its report on crypto crime, Chainalysis said estimates of illicit flows change as additional addresses and historical activity are identified. It raised its estimate of funds received by illicit addresses in 2024 from $40.9 billion to $57.2 billion when it updated its analysis in 2026. The change reflects how published figures on crypto crime can expand as new information becomes available.
For crypto fraud specifically, Chainalysis estimated that operations received at least $14 billion on-chain during 2025 and said the total could exceed $17 billion as more illicit wallet addresses are identified. The initial estimate covers funds observed on-chain, while the higher figure reflects the company's projection of what may emerge after further wallet identification. These figures place fraud among the cases targeted by the task force, alongside hacks, terrorist financing and cyberattacks. The three organizations said their focus includes illicit USDT activity on Tron, while working with law enforcement to speed up asset freezes. The published information did not set a date for a subsequent operational step or a numerical target for the task force.