⚖️ In cases of this nature, the core variable is the fund channel. In Inner Mongolia’s fourth-party payment case involving gambling, the focus can shift from “use of USDT” to the gray payment network itself: how third-party payment providers, shell merchants, offshore gambling sites, and on-chain settlement are connected into a single fund channel. The court’s second-instance ruling upholding the original verdict confirms this as an officially recognized judicial case. According to BlockBeats, citing case details, Zhu and others established a fourth-party payment platform to facilitate fund settlement for offshore gambling websites. The fund channel involved 10 third-party payment companies and 105 merchant accounts, with settlement amounts exceeding RMB 2.95 billion and illicit profits of approximately RMB 42.85 million. Ma was sentenced to four years and six months in prison, fined RMB 3 million, and ordered to forfeit illicit gains of RMB 2.95 million for failing to return illicit proceeds. The first impact concerns the compliance narrative around stablecoins. USDT itself was not classified as illegal, but once it was incorporated into commission settlement and wallet deposit chains, stablecoins will appear more frequently in law enforcement materials related to payments, online gambling, and underground currency exchange. For regulators, on-chain addresses make fund pathways easier to document as evidence. The second impact concerns exchanges and OTC channels. In the future, evaluating stablecoin businesses will require more than just monitoring circulating supply and trading depth—it will also demand scrutiny of KYC, merchant transparency, wallet risk controls, and judicial cooperation capabilities. Platforms that can solidify this infrastructure will earn greater trust; channels expanding solely through speed and low barriers will continue to face rising costs. My verification sequence: Check whether subsequent court rulings disclose additional on-chain addresses and roles of payment providers; observe whether exchanges and payment processors strengthen USDT deposit/withdrawal risk controls; determine whether stablecoins in similar cases are treated merely as evidentiary tools or elevated to regulated business objects. This case also serves as a useful indicator for observing how stablecoin risk controls are shifting from reactive investigation to proactive interception. Source: BlockBeats. $USDT #Stablecoin #OnChainPayment #FundChannel #JudicialCase #RiskAlert #OTCTrading #Compliance #HashWorldCompanyCheckup #HashWorldNews