United Nations identifies USDT as prominent choice for fraud in SEA: FT

01/15/2024 15:13
United Nations identifies USDT as prominent choice for fraud in SEA: FT

UN warned Monday that USDT has become a prominent payment method for criminal groups in Southeast Asia, the Financial Times reported.

Published 1 minute earlier on

Quick Take

  • A United Nations report published Monday suggested that USDT has become a prominent payment method for money laundering and scams in Southeast Asia, according to the Financial Times.

Tether USDT -0.09% ’s USDT stablecoin has become one of the prominent payment methods for money laundering and scams in Southeast Asia, the United Nations warned in a report on Monday.

“Online gambling platforms, especially those operating illegally, have emerged as among the most popular vehicles for cryptocurrency-based money launderers, particularly for those using Tether,” the UN report said, per the Financial Times.

The UN also reportedly suggested the world's most-popular stablecoin has been widely used in underground fraud, including romantic scams known as “pig butchering.” This may not comes as a surprise — in November, Tether said that it assisted the U.S. Department of Justice and froze about $225 million in USDT in external, self-custodied wallets linked to an international human trafficking group in Southeast Asia responsible for a pig-butchering scam.

The report additionally noted how law enforcement agencies have disrupted multiple money laundering networks involved in the transfer of illicit Tether funds in recent years. Last August, for example, Singaporean authorities conducted an operation that led to the dismantling of one such network — resulting in the recovery of around $735 million in both cash and cryptocurrency.

Tether did not immediately respond to The Block’s request for comment.

In December, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in a letter shared with U.S. legislators that it has onboarded the U.S. Secret Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation onto its platform.

Over the course of 2023, Tether saw its share of global stablecoin supply grow from 50% to 71%, according to The Block data.


Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

Timmy Shen is an Asia editor for The Block. Previously, he wrote about crypto and Web3 for Forkast.News from Taiwan after spending more than three years in Beijing covering finance and current affairs at Caixin Global and Chinese tech at TechNode. His China-related reporting has also appeared in The Guardian. When he's not chasing headlines, you'll find him savoring hot pot and shabu shabu in a Taipei local haunt. Timmy holds an MS degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Send tips to [email protected] or get in touch on X/Telegram @timmyhmshen.

Editor

More by Timmy Shen

Read more --->