Tron, Tether and Chainalysis Form a New Crypto-Crime Task Force—Replacing One That Just Collapsed

In brief

• Tron, Tether and Chainalysis launched the Digital Crime Task Force to proactively identify illicit USDT activity on Tron and help law enforcement freeze funds before criminals move them, using Chainalysis’s AI-powered tools.
• It replaces the T3 Financial Crime Unit, a near-identical effort Tron and Tether ran with rival analytics firm TRM Labs that froze $450 million but was quietly disbanded in late August over coordination problems.
• Swapping TRM for competitor Chainalysis is pointed given the rivalry—Chainalysis sued the U.S. over an ICE contract awarded to TRM.

Tron, Tether, and blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis have launched a joint effort to hunt down and disrupt criminal activity involving the USDT stablecoin, just weeks after a nearly identical alliance, with a different analytics partner, quietly fell apart.

Announced Wednesday, the Digital Crime Task Force aims to identify illicit activity involving Tether’s USDT on the Tron blockchain and surface it for law enforcement before criminals can move their funds.

The pitch is a shift from reactive to proactive: rather than waiting for a victim to report a crime or an investigator to flag tainted funds, the group says it will proactively trace criminal networks and coordinate asset freezes, drawing on Chainalysis’s intelligence and AI-powered investigative tools. It will also accept tips and freeze requests from police.