Tron, Tether, and Chainalysis formed a special task force for digital crime

Tron, Tether, and Chainalysis announced the establishment of a joint initiative called the "Digital Crime Task Force," aimed at identifying and combating illegal activities utilizing USDT on the Tron blockchain. The three parties stated that the task force will collaborate with law enforcement agencies through intelligence gathering to shorten the interval from threat identification to enforcement action, accelerating the asset freezing process before criminals can transfer funds. Tron founder Justin Sun stated that millions rely on USDT on Tron to sustain their livelihoods and businesses, and as digital finance reaches more people, the ability to protect must also be enhanced accordingly.

The establishment of the task force comes against the backdrop of rising threats from AI-driven scams and cyberattacks in the cryptocurrency industry. Chainalysis pointed out that by 2025, the profit efficiency of AI-enabled scams will be 4.5 times that of traditional methods, with identity impersonation scams increasing by over 1400% year-on-year. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated that criminals are using AI to accelerate their actions, and waiting for victims to report is no longer sufficient; Tether has collaborated with over 360 law enforcement agencies in 73 countries to freeze over $7 billion related to illegal activities.

The task force plans to cover threat types including investment and romance scams, hacking attacks, terrorist financing, and North Korea-related cyberattacks. This formation follows the dissolution of a previous alliance: in 2024, Tron, Tether, and TRM Labs established the "T3 Financial Crime Group," which, according to Bloomberg earlier this month, was disbanded due to slow response and lack of coordination among members. Earlier this week, the cross-chain interoperability protocol Across resumed operations after experiencing a domain hijacking, and blockchain infrastructure provider Chainstack also disclosed that it faced an AI-driven security breach last month, leaking customer names, emails, and password hashes.