Tron, Tether, and Chainalysis join forces to fight AI-powered crime
Tron, Tether, and Chainalysis have announced the creation of a joint Digital Crime Task Force to combat illicit cryptocurrency activities. The initiative will focus particularly on AI-powered fraud, which is growing at an alarming rate.
According to The Block, the new task force will identify and disrupt criminal transactions involving the USDT stablecoin on the Tron blockchain. The companies plan to combine their analytical capabilities and strengthen cooperation with law enforcement agencies.
The initiative's main objective is to reduce the time between detecting suspicious transactions and taking action. This will allow authorities and industry participants to freeze assets linked to criminal activity more quickly, before perpetrators can transfer funds to other addresses or move them out of the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
"Millions of people use USDT on Tron to support their families, run their businesses, and secure their future. As digital finance becomes more widespread, mechanisms to protect users must evolve as well," said Tron founder Justin Sun.
Notably, the new task force was established shortly after the dissolution of a similar alliance, the T3 Financial Crime Unit, formed by Tron, Tether, and TRM Labs in 2024. Bloomberg previously reported that the alliance was disbanded due to slow responses to threats and insufficient coordination among its members.
Artificial intelligence is helping crypto scammers
One of the main reasons behind the creation of the new task force is the growing number of cybercrimes involving artificial intelligence. According to Chainalysis, AI-powered scams generated 4.5 times more revenue for criminals last year than traditional fraud schemes. Meanwhile, impersonation scams increased by more than 1,400% year over year.
"Criminals are using artificial intelligence to operate faster than ever. Simply waiting for victims to report crimes is no longer enough," said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.
According to Ardoino, Tether has already frozen more than $7 billion linked to illicit activity. To achieve this, the company has worked with more than 360 law enforcement agencies across 73 countries.
The new task force intends to combat investment fraud, romance scams, hacking attacks, terrorist financing, and cybercrime linked to North Korea.
The threat of such attacks remains relevant across the cryptocurrency industry. Earlier this week, the cross-chain protocol Across suffered a domain takeover before restoring normal operations.
In addition, blockchain infrastructure provider Chainstack disclosed an AI-powered cyberattack that occurred in late October. The attackers gained access to customer names, email addresses, and password hashes.
How Tether freezes stolen cryptocurrencies
Unlike Bitcoin, the USDT stablecoin has a built-in centralized freezing mechanism. Tether can blacklist a specific cryptocurrency address, preventing the USDT held at that address from being transferred or exchanged. However, the funds do not disappear from the blockchain and are not automatically returned to victims.
Such measures are already being used in practice. For example, in January 2026, Tether froze $182 million across five addresses on the Tron network at the request of law enforcement authorities. Following the Binance hack in October, the company also reportedly froze more than $1.5 billion in USDT in just 30 minutes.
However, the effectiveness of these measures depends on how quickly suspicious transactions are detected. If criminals manage to exchange USDT for other cryptocurrencies or withdraw the funds, Tether's ability to freeze the assets becomes significantly more limited. The new alliance aims to shorten precisely this window between threat detection and asset freezing.
As a reminder, Chainalysis previously reported that a cyberattack had exposed a limited amount of customer data.
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