Tether has blocked six new wallets on the Ethereum network, likely due to being linked to the Russia Finiko ponzi scheme.
According to blockchain intelligence firm ChainArgos, the wallets might have made suspicious transfers to Finiko-linked addresses. However, no other noticeable suspicious transactions were observed from these addresses.
1/4 @Tether_to just blacklisted 6 new wallets:
On Ethereum:
– 0x691169914a13465bd9528292f8fbdd0301354941
– 0x6d82a3743261e0ac77116f4cf153338bec3c69c6
– 0x016a2046689fc94eec7d23545693bc7b81dbabd1
– 0x873e288d432d1e8dd93defa63406fd9a80580491
-…
— ChainArgos (@ChainArgos) December 20, 2023
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Finiko was a pyramid scheme launched in Russia in 2018, which saw victims lose up to $95 million. Last year, Interpol arrested the scam leader, Edvard Sabirov, in the UAE. However, several other members of the scam are still at large.
Tether also blocked an address from TRON; however, blockchain analysts identified no suspicious activity from that address. The wallet only was one significant transfer worth $7,000 USDT from Bitfinex. Tether has been actively monitoring wallets linked to cybercrime and illicit activities to ensure compliance with U.S regulators.
However, these seven wallets don’t seem to have any significant and evident link to major malicious activities. The stablecoin giant also hasn’t released a statement regarding this yet.