Tether Assists Turkey in Freezing $1 Billion in Assets, Signaling a Shift in Its Compliance Strategy
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Tether Assists Turkey in Freezing $1 Billion in Assets, Signaling a Shift in Its Compliance Strategy
Tether frequently touts its efforts to combat criminal activities, including in its communications aimed at attracting potential investors, as the company seeks funding at a valuation of up to $500 billion.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Ryan Weeks, Todd Gillespie, and Taylan Bilgic
Translated by Luffy, Foresight News
On January 30, Turkish authorities announced the freezing of over $500 million in assets belonging to Veysel Sahin, who is accused of operating an illegal gambling platform and engaging in money laundering. Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor revealed that an unnamed cryptocurrency company carried out the freeze at the request of the Turkish government.
That company is Tether Holdings SA, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, which has a market capitalization of $185 billion. Recently, Tether has actively assisted governments worldwide in combating various cryptocurrency-related crimes, including money laundering, drug trafficking, and sanctions evasion.
Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, told Bloomberg News in a recent interview: “Law enforcement agencies contact us with relevant information; we verify it and then act in accordance with the laws of the jurisdiction involved. We follow this same process when cooperating with U.S. agencies such as the Department of Justice and the FBI.”
Tether declined to comment further on this case. Bloomberg was unable to reach Sahin. A Turkish official also refused to disclose the name of the company cited in the prosecutor’s statement.
The frozen assets—€460 million (approximately $544 million)—are part of a large-scale law enforcement operation in Turkey, where over $1 billion in assets linked to the case have now been frozen. According to Turkish television network NTV, days after the announcement regarding Sahin’s assets, another individual was investigated for suspected money laundering and illegal gambling, and $500 million worth of their cryptocurrency assets were also frozen—though it remains unclear whether Tether-issued tokens were involved in this freeze.
A Turkish official, speaking anonymously to Bloomberg on sensitive legal matters, stated that authorities identified “financial footprints” of suspected illicit income by tracing fund flows and analyzing cryptocurrency assets, and added that similar asset freezes targeting individuals involved in illegal gambling and payment systems are expected in the future.
For Tether, this freeze represents just one among an increasing number of such operations, underscoring how the cryptocurrency giant is intensifying its cooperation with global law enforcement agencies.
A January report from analytics firm Elliptic revealed that, as of the end of 2025, Tether and its competitor Circle Internet Group Inc. had blacklisted approximately 5,700 wallets containing roughly $2.5 billion in assets—a figure that was negligible two years earlier. At the time of freezing, three-quarters of those wallets held USDT.
Arda Akartuna, Head of APAC Cryptocurrency Threat Intelligence at Elliptic, said: “As legitimate cryptocurrency use expands and global payment integration accelerates, illicit usage rises in tandem—prompting stablecoin issuers to intervene more proactively.”
Tether frequently highlights its efforts to combat criminal activity—including in communications aimed at attracting potential investors—as it seeks financing at a valuation of up to $50 billion. According to its official website, Tether has assisted law enforcement agencies in over 1,800 cases across 62 countries, freezing $3.4 billion worth of USDT linked to suspected illegal activities.
Nathan McCauley, Co-Founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital Bank—a Tether partner—said in an interview: “They [Tether] are extremely cooperative, and within the stablecoin issuer community, they hold what is widely regarded as the ‘best reputation’ among law enforcement agencies.”
Anchorage is the issuer of Tether’s compliant U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin USAT, launched in late January, marking Tether’s return to the U.S. market.
This stands in stark contrast to Tether’s tense relationship with U.S. regulators just a few years ago. After clashing with regulators in 2018, Tether largely withdrew from the U.S. market and settled allegations of misrepresenting its reserves in 2021 by paying $41 million.
However, the second Trump administration has welcomed the cryptocurrency industry. Last year, Ardoino joined several other executives at the ceremony where President Trump signed the stablecoin regulatory bill.
Nonetheless, Tether’s USDT continues to draw regulatory scrutiny due to its widespread use by criminals.
On January 9, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced charges against a Venezuelan national for laundering $1 billion using USDT. A recent Elliptic report indicated that the Central Bank of Iran purchased over $500 million worth of USDT to alleviate its currency crisis and circumvent U.S. sanctions.
Sahin, a fugitive from Turkey, is accused of leading an organization that laundered funds for illegal online gambling platforms. Local media reports state that Sahin was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2017, released in 2023, and sentenced again to 21 years in prison one month later. His current whereabouts remain unknown, though Turkey’s official Anadolu Agency reported on January 30 that “legal procedures to extradite him back to Turkey are underway.”
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