Autor Cointelegraph by Christina Comben

The T3 Financial Crime Unit, a joint initiative backed by Tether, Tron and blockchain analytics company TRM Labs, says it has helped freeze more than $450 million in assets linked to suspected criminal activity since its launch in 2024. The group said in a Thursday release shared with Cointelegraph that it has worked with law enforcement agencies across 23 jurisdictions to target funds tied to alleged drug trafficking, exchange hacks, North Korea-linked activity, terrorist financing and violent “wrench” attacks, including kidnappings and extortion. The unit focuses on Tether’s USDT stablecoin activity on the Tron blockchain and says it has been able to freeze assets within 24 hours in multiple emergency cases at the request of authorities. T3 FCU said it intercepted 43.9% more illicit proceeds in 2025 than in the previous year. The announcement comes as TRM Labs estimates that overall illicit crypto flows reached a record $158 billion in 2025, according to the release, highlighting the growing pressure on stablecoin issuers and blockchain networks to strengthen compliance and cooperate more closely with law enforcement. The T3 Financial Crime Unit (T3 FCU). Source: TetherThe group was cited earlier this year by the Financial Action Task Force as an “invaluable resource” for law enforcement and highlighted in FATF reporting on public-private partnership models.Related: Europe sees ‘hyperconcentration’ of crypto wrench attacks as losses hit $101M T3 figures follow broader USDT freeze activity The new figures also follow separate onchain data from security firm BlockSec on Friday, showing that more than $500 million in USDT had been frozen over a recent 30-day period. Cointelegraph reached out to Tether to ask how the $450 million in assets linked to T3 FCU’s work intersect with Tether’s broader blacklisting and freezing activity across chains, and how much of the total relates specifically to Tron-based USDT, but had not received a response by publication. The company was also asked how it balances an expanding compliance and asset-freezing toolkit with criticism from parts of the crypto industry that such powers increase centralization risk and may undermine the permissionless nature of stablecoin transfers on networks like Tron. Tron, which positions itself as a low-cost settlement layer for stablecoins, told Cointelegraph it is an “agnostic technology provider” that cannot directly monitor every user or block every transaction, and that the means to identify and stop illicit activity sit with partners such as Tether, TRM Labs and law enforcement.Asia Express: North Korea denies crypto hacks, Upbit’s bank tests Ripple

The Bank of England (BoE) is reconsidering parts of its proposed regime for pound sterling stablecoins after digital asset companies warned that holding caps and reserve requirements could stifle adoption and make UK-issued tokens uneconomic.The central bank is looking at alternatives to temporary caps on how many stablecoins individuals and businesses can hold, and is examining whether its requirement that at least 40% of backing assets be held as non-interest-bearing deposits at the BoE is overly conservative, Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden told the Financial Times.The rethink comes as the UK government and regulators try to position Britain as a competitive hub for digital assets while containing risks to bank funding and financial stability. Sterling-pegged tokens currently make up a tiny fraction of the roughly $300 billion global stablecoin market, which remains dominated by dollar-based issuers.The BoE set out detailed ownership limits in its November 2025 consultation paper on a proposed regulatory regime for sterling-denominated systemic stablecoins, building on options first aired in a 2023 discussion paper. Under that proposal, individuals would be restricted to holding up to 20,000 pounds (roughly $27,000) of a given UK stablecoin, while businesses would be capped at roughly $13.5 million, at least during an initial transition period.Stablecoins Discussion Paper, 2023. Source: Bank of EnglandThe central bank argued that limits were needed to avoid a sudden outflow of deposits from commercial banks into new forms of “tokenised” money if a large stablecoin were rapidly adopted for payments.Related: Bank of England chief says global stablecoin rules will ‘wrestle’ with USIndustry groups and prospective issuers countered that the caps were operationally cumbersome, hard to supervise across platforms, and could deter serious institutional use of regulated UK stablecoins in areas like corporate treasury, payroll and settlement.BoE rethinks stablecoin caps after pushbackBreeden has been one of the most cautious voices on stablecoins within the BoE. In November 2025, she warned that diluting the rules too far could damage financial stability, stressing that stablecoins are money-like instruments that must be at least as safe and robust as existing payments infrastructure.At the time, she backed stringent liquidity requirements that would force stablecoin issuers to park large portions of their reserves at the central bank and hold the rest in high-quality liquid securities such as UK government bonds.Law firms and potential issuers argue that such a structure would significantly compress margins and make UK stablecoin issuance far less attractive than operating under the United States or European Union regimes.UK hunts for middle ground on stablecoinsThe shift in tone highlights how UK policymakers are still feeling their way toward a middle ground on stablecoins as global approaches diverge. In January, UK lawmakers opened an inquiry into how best to oversee fiat-backed tokens, taking evidence from industry participants such as Coinbase and Innovate Finance, while the BoE and Treasury continue to refine a framework intended to sit alongside broader crypto rules and potential digital pound plans.A more flexible approach to caps and backing requirements could determine whether systemic GBP stablecoins emerge as serious competitors to dollar-pegged rivals in cross-border payments and onshore crypto markets, or whether activity remains concentrated in jurisdictions seen as more accommodating.Magazine: Singapore isn’t a ‘crypto hub’ — it’s something better: StraitsX CEO

Tokyo-listed Metaplanet reported first-quarter operating income Wednesday of 2.27 billion Japanese yen (roughly $14.38 million) on net sales of about $19.5 million, implying an operating margin of 73.6% as surging Bitcoin option income more than tripled revenue from a year earlier, according to the company’s Q1 fiscal year 2026 earnings release. The strong operating performance contrasted with an ordinary loss of around $728 million, driven mainly by non-cash valuation losses as Bitcoin’s price declined during the period, and the company marked its expanding Bitcoin (BTC) holdings lower. The price of Bitcoin fell around 24% during the quarter, from around $87,000 on Jan. 1 to roughly $66,000 on March 31, according to data from Coingecko.Revenue for the quarter ending March 31 rose from about $5.5 million a year earlier to about $19.5 million, the filing shows, with the Bitcoin Income Generation business of option premiums and derivative valuation gains contributing the bulk of sales, while hotel operations remained a small, stable contributor.BTC price fell 24% in Q1. Source: CoingeckoMetaplanet posted a basic loss of roughly $0.63 per share, widening from a loss of about $0.078 a year earlier, and kept its full-year 2026 outlook unchanged, still forecasting net sales of roughly $101 million and operating profit of about $72 million, while refraining from giving ordinary or net income guidance due to Bitcoin price sensitivity.Strong operating income offset by Bitcoin valuation lossMetaplanet ended the quarter holding 40,177 Bitcoin, up from 35,102 at the end of December 2025, after adding about 5,075 BTC in Q1 to become the third-largest publicly listed Bitcoin treasury, through a combination of new equity and Bitcoin-backed borrowing.Consolidated Financial Results for Q1, FY2026. Source: MetaplanetOn a fully diluted basis, Bitcoin holdings per share increased from 0.0240486 BTC to 0.0247319 BTC, corresponding to a first-quarter BTC yield of 2.8%, which the company highlights as a key performance indicator for shareholder value creation, as it measures Bitcoin per-share growth after dilution.Metaplanet’s capital structure continued to evolve over the quarter, with total net assets falling from $2.96 billion at Dec. 31 to approximately $2.60 billion, as Bitcoin-related valuation losses outweighed equity raised during the quarter.Short-term borrowings also increased as the company drew further on its $500 million Bitcoin-collateralized credit facility, under which it had $302 million outstanding as of May 13, 2026, it said.Metaplanet shares traded lower on Wednesday in Tokyo, at around 327 Japanese yen (roughly $2.07), down 3.82% at the time of writing from Tuesday’s close, according to data from Yahoo! Finance.Magazine: Bitcoin will not hit $1M by 2030, says veteran trader Peter Brandt

Blockchain analytics platform Arkham has published what it says is a public, onchain map of crypto wallets attributed to Iran’s central bank, making a pair of US-sanctioned Tron addresses publicly searchable for investigators and the wider public.The move could increase scrutiny of how Iranian-linked entities use stablecoins and blockchain networks to move funds outside traditional banking rails, as US authorities intensify sanctions enforcement tied to terrorism financing and oil revenues.Arkham’s May 11 research post groups the wallets into a Central Bank of Iran entity page and explorer, which the firm says can be used as a starting point to trace connected addresses and flows.The map is built on two TRC-20 wallets that the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added to its Specially Designated Nationals list on April 24 as property of Bank Markazi Jomhouri Islami Iran, citing links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and Hezbollah.TRC-20 wallets tied to Iran. Source: ArkhamUS authorities froze about $344 million in crypto linked to Iran as part of that action, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, describing it as an effort to “systematically degrade Tehran’s ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds.” Tether separately said it had frozen the funds at the request of US authorities over “activity tied to unlawful conduct,” without explicitly naming Iran in its public statement.Arkham’s wallet mapping reflects a broader push by blockchain analytics firms and stablecoin issuers to expose and disrupt sanctions evasion networks increasingly using crypto infrastructure tied to Tron and Tether.Related: US Treasury sanctions Iran-linked crypto exchanges in first Iran-related designationsIn an April 27 note, Chainalysis described a multi-step stablecoin “pipeline” in which Iranian oil revenues were routed through brokers, intermediary wallets, cross-chain bridges and decentralized finance protocols before cycling back into accounts associated with the Central Bank of Iran and IRGC-linked entities.Iran’s wider crypto footprintThe Arkham findings come against a broader backdrop of growing Iranian crypto use. A February report on Iran’s digital assets footprint, citing estimates from TRM Labs and Chainalysis, put the country’s overall crypto transaction volume at about $11.4 billion in 2024 and $10 billion in 2025.In May, Nobitex, Iran’s largest crypto exchange, was reportedly linked to members of a powerful family with ties to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and used as a key conduit between domestic users and offshore liquidity.In April, Iran reportedly considered charging crypto-denominated tolls to ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, positioning digital assets as an additional revenue channel outside traditional banking rails.Separately, Cointelegraph reported Friday that Tether had frozen more than 500 million USDT over a recent 30-day period across Ethereum and Tron, with around 506 million of that on Tron, according to BlockSec’s USDT Freeze Tracker.A TRON spokesperson told Cointelegraph the network itself cannot monitor or block individual transactions, but pointed to the T3 Financial Crime Unit, a collaboration between TRON, Tether and TRM Labs launched in 2024, as its main channel for tackling abuse, saying it works with law enforcement “to freeze hundreds of millions of funds,” including funds tied to sanctioned entities and terror financing. Tether declined to comment.Asia Express: North Korea denies crypto hacks, Upbit’s bank tests Ripple

CertiK says North Korea-linked hackers stole about 60% of the value lost to crypto hacks in 2025, with proceeds used to help fund the regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, highlighting the country’s growing reliance on digital assets to generate hard currency.The findings, shared with Cointelegraph on Tuesday, come from a new Skynet report that attributes roughly $2.06 billion of an estimated $3.4 billion in 2025 crypto security losses to groups tied to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, across 79 of 656 incidents documented that year.Between 2016 and early 2026, DPRK-linked actors stole an estimated $6.75 billion in cryptocurrency across 263 documented incidents, the report says, citing findings by independent onchain researcher Taylor Monahan.CertiK’s analysis concludes that North Korea has “industrialized” crypto theft into a core state revenue mechanism, with open-source estimates showing how these operations represent a substantial share of the regime’s external income, as digital asset theft becomes a sustained revenue stream for the country.Total DPRK crypto theft over the years. Source: CertiK/SkynetThe report also identifies a shift from opportunistic hot wallet compromises to fewer, higher-value operations that target the largest pools of capital.In 2025, DPRK-linked groups were behind about 60% of the value stolen but only around 12% of total incidents, highlighting what CertiK describes as a focus on “precision and scale.”Related: Phishing, deepfakes, supply chain attacks to fuel 2026’s biggest crypto hacks: CertiKThe single largest incident, the Bybit exploit in February 2025, resulted in about $1.5 billion in losses and is attributed in the report to the TraderTraitor cluster via a supply chain compromise of a third-party signing provider. In that case, CertiK’s onchain analysis found that about 86% of the stolen Ether was converted into Bitcoin within one month of the hack, using mixing services, cross-chain bridges, decentralized exchanges and over-the-counter brokers.North Korea’s crypto hacks shift from phishing to physical CertiK’s Skynet study also details a progression in tactics, showing that social engineering remains the dominant initial attack vector, including fake job offers, investor impersonation and malicious code repositories.DPRK evolution playbook. Source: CertiK/SkynetThe report attributes the Ronin Bridge exploit in 2022 to a spearphishing campaign involving a fake LinkedIn recruiter and a malware-laden PDF, while Bybit is cited as an example of a supply chain compromise, where attackers manipulated a user interface to route funds to a malicious address without changing the apparent content of transactions.Related: Web3 hacks cost $482M in Q1 as phishing drove majority of losses: HackenThe most recent evolution, described by CertiK as “physical infiltration,” is illustrated with the April 2026 Drift Protocol incident, in which about $285 million was drained from a Solana-based platform after a six-month operation involving conference attendance, relationship-building and governance manipulation.Jonathan Riss, blockchain intelligence analyst at CertiK, told Cointelegraph that DPRK-linked operations now blend intelligence tradecraft with technical exploits, warning that North Korean information technology workers and intermediaries can obtain trusted roles inside Western crypto and fintech firms under false identities.CertiK’s report, citing United Nations monitors and United States intelligence assessments, notes that revenue from these crypto thefts is confirmed to support North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, elevating the issue from a cybersecurity concern to one of international security, according to those cited assessments.Asia Express: North Korea denies crypto hacks, Upbit’s bank tests Ripple