New data from AMLBOT shows a big difference in how the world’s two largest stablecoin companies, Tether and Circle, handle frozen funds.
Between 2023 and 2025, Tether froze about $3.3 billion, while Circle froze only $109 million. That means Tether locked down almost 30 times more money than Circle during the same period.
Tether blacklisted 7,268 wallet addresses over those two years. More than 2,800 of those freezes were done with help from U.S. law enforcement, mainly targeting money linked to scams and criminal activity. Most of the frozen Tether funds were on the Tron network, which made up more than half of the total.
Tether uses a system called “freeze, burn, and reissue.” This means once funds are frozen, the tokens can be destroyed and then reissued under controlled conditions. On Ethereum alone, more than $1.5 billion worth of USDT is currently sitting in banned wallets.
Circle, on the other hand, takes a much stricter legal route. It froze just 372 addresses, almost all on Ethereum, totaling about $109 million. Circle only freezes funds when there is a clear court order or regulatory request, and it does not burn or reissue tokens after freezing them.
These numbers show two very different ways of handling compliance. Tether acts fast and at a large scale, often working directly with law enforcement. Circle moves slower and sticks closely to formal legal processes.
The gap highlights how issuer policies and enforcement choices can shape what happens to stablecoins during investigations, sanctions, or fraud cases—and why USDT and USDC don’t always behave the same way in tough situations.
