TLDR
- Tether froze roughly $39.3 million in USDT across 10 Tron wallets tied to Xinbi Guarantee.
- Blockchain tracing firm MistTrack first reported the freeze on September 8.
- The largest wallet held more than $10 million in USDT.
- TRM Labs says Xinbi has processed about $24.2 billion in transactions since 2022.
- Tether has not publicly confirmed the freeze or explained the reason behind it.
Tether has frozen about $39.3 million in USDT held across 10 Tron addresses linked to Xinbi Guarantee. The action was first reported by MistTrack, the onchain tracing platform built by SlowMist.
MistTrack identified the wallets on September 8. Together they held 39,273,713 USDT at the time the restrictions were detected.
The balances were spread unevenly. The largest wallet held about 10.78 million USDT, while three others held roughly 8 million USDT each.
Another address contained around 2.04 million USDT, and two more held about 1.28 million and 1.17 million USDT. Three of the ten wallets held just 1 USDT each.
MistTrack traced one of the larger wallets directly to Xinbi Guarantee. Transaction records showed transfers coming in from wallets labeled “Guarantee Merchant” before funds moved on to another Xinbi-linked address.
Tether has not publicly confirmed the freeze or said why the addresses were targeted.
What Is Xinbi Guarantee
Xinbi Guarantee is a Chinese-language marketplace that first appeared on Telegram around 2022. It operates as an escrow service, connecting merchants and buyers and using crypto to settle transactions.
TRM Labs estimates Xinbi has processed about $24.2 billion in total transaction volume since 2022. That includes $12.1 billion in inflows since May 2025 alone.
Researchers have linked merchants on the platform to scam operations, money laundering, and the sale of stolen personal data. Elliptic previously found that funds tied to the WazirX hack had passed through Xinbi-linked wallets.
Telegram removed thousands of channels tied to Xinbi and Huione Guarantee in May 2025 following pressure from blockchain investigators. Xinbi returned to the platform within days, according to TRM Labs.
The marketplace later began shifting parts of its operation to SafeW, a separate messaging app. It also introduced a crypto wallet called NewPay, also known as XinbiPay, which does not require identity checks.
Tether’s History of Freezing USDT
This is not Tether’s first freeze tied to a Telegram-based guarantee marketplace. In July 2024, the company froze more than $28 million connected to Huione Group’s Guarantee business.
Huione reportedly tried to work around that freeze by moving 114,800 USDC through a different address, according to blockchain firm Bitrace.
Tether has also frozen funds in other cases this year. In June, more than $72 million was frozen after investigator ZachXBT traced a wallet that had received 120.2 million USDT and moved it through exchanges.
The company also restricted 131 Tron wallets after U.S. sanctions authorities linked them to ISIS-K, affecting more than $1.4 million in USDT.
Research from BlockSec found Tether blacklisted 4,163 addresses during 2025, freezing $1.26 billion in USDT across Ethereum and Tron combined.
Tether can restrict transfers from specific wallet addresses at any time. The transaction history on those wallets remains visible on the blockchain even after a freeze is applied.
As of this report, Tether has not issued a public statement confirming the Xinbi freeze or its cause. Investigators are continuing to track whether the affected funds move through other wallets or successor platforms.
