Tether Freezes $45 Million in Crackdown on Xinbi Marketplace

Tether recently blocked more than $45 million in USDT across at least 22 wallets associated with Xinbi Guarantee. This marketplace, which faced sanctions from the UK earlier this year, acts as a hub for money laundering and supports various scam operations in Southeast Asia. By targeting not only holding addresses but also deposit and withdrawal nodes, Tether successfully disrupted the network's ability to move funds.

In response to these aggressive measures, Xinbi has stopped using USDT for transactions. The platform is now pushing users toward USDD, a decentralized stablecoin that operates without a central issuer. Because USDD lacks a blacklist function, Xinbi claims it cannot be frozen like USDT, making it a more resilient option for their payment infrastructure.

This shift highlights a new phase in the cat and mouse game between crypto investigators and illicit networks. While USDD may resist direct token freezes, the platform still relies on bridges, exchanges, and other services to convert funds into cash. The success of this crackdown now depends on whether authorities can target these secondary access points before the marketplace fully adapts to its new stablecoin.