Tether freezing proposals take over two hours to execute; high-risk addresses exploit time gaps.

ChainCatcher report: FlashRescue co-founder @DarcyAri posted on X that during a recent joint investigation with partners, while Tether was executing a proposal to freeze an address, funds from one address were transferred, reducing the frozen amount. After further review by FlashRescue, this was not an isolated incident. As of August 3, 2026, analysis of 2,955 Tether freeze events on the Ethereum and TRON networks revealed that among risk addresses linked to entity sanctions, fraud, money laundering, FATF blacklisted jurisdictions, and malicious attacks: 60 addresses emptied their assets and completed preemptive transfers before the freeze was officially executed, totaling a net outflow of 20,429,847 USDT; these transfers began on average 13 minutes and 59 seconds after the freeze proposal was submitted and were completed within 15 minutes and 15 seconds. Additionally, 113 addresses transferred partial assets prior to freeze execution, involving approximately 35.52 million USDT. On average, Tether takes 2 hours, 16 minutes, and 15 seconds from submitting a freeze proposal to its official execution, creating a significant time gap between public announcement and actual implementation. For example, on July 3, a cluster of addresses sequentially transferred funds into a single address before splitting them further. These cases indicate that certain high-risk addresses may be actively monitoring Tether’s freeze proposals and exploiting the time lag between proposal disclosure and actual freeze enforcement to execute preemptive transfers. This mechanism undermines the effectiveness of asset freezes and weakens the impact of sanctions, anti-money laundering, and law enforcement cooperation measures.