Law enforcement and private sector partners seized nearly 11% of the volume of illicit cryptocurrencies in 2025, a rate 55 times higher than the recovery rate of traditional assets, according to data shared by Binance Research.
Actions by Tether, Interpol, and the T3 Financial Crimes Unit directly challenge the argument that cryptocurrencies are a haven for criminals, the research arm of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange reported.
Binance contributes to the T3 Financial Crimes Unit
T3 Financial Crimes Unit (T3 FCU), a partnership between Tether, TRON and blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs, Recently announced It has frozen more than $450 million in USDT linked to criminal activity since its launch in September 2024.
The frozen funds come from illicit operations such as money laundering, cyber operations linked to North Korea, drug trafficking, and violent crimes, including kidnappings. T3 FCU reported that its interceptions in 2025 were 43.9% higher than in 2024.
The group has already assisted in several high-profile cases around the world, such as in Spain, where T3 FCU helped the Guardia Civil freeze approximately $26.4 million linked to a European money laundering network.
In Brazil, the unit assisted in “Operation Lusocoin,” a federal investigation that led to the freezing of $4.3 million as part of a larger seizure of more than R$3 billion (about $525 million).
In the wake of the Bybit hack, the unit identified nearly $9 million in funds traced to the exchange breach. Recently, Tether froze $344 million on TRON.
Financial Action Task Force (FATF) quote T3 FCU earlier this year as an “invaluable resource to law enforcement agencies around the world.”
Why are Binance’s cryptocurrency crime statistics disputed?
The cryptocurrency industry frequently relies on Data published by Binance ResearchIt is an arm of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume. This data is now subject to direct scrutiny by companies whose research has been cited by Binance.
In November 2025, on the same day that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published The Coin Laundry, an investigation by more than 100 journalists in 35 countries that found hundreds of millions of dollars in suspicious cryptocurrencies flowing through Binance accounts, Binance released its own transparency report.
Binance claimed that its direct exposure to illicit funds has fallen by 96% since early 2023, citing data from Chainalogy and TRM Laboratories. It also reported that only 0.007% to 0.023% of its transaction volume was directly linked to illicit wallets, and positioned itself as having the lowest exposure to crime among its major competitors.
Chainalysis publicly distanced itself from the framing of Binance, saying it did not conduct the analysis. The company also said that Binance did not include all categories of illicit activity it tracks. Specifically, Chainalysis said Binance’s numbers omitted funds stolen through the hack and ransomware proceeds.
Ari Redbord, head of policy at TRM Labs, told ICIJ that these statistics… Binance The ones attributed to her company cover only certain categories. The company also clarified that comparisons made by Binance with competing exchanges were not part of its analysis.
Binance acknowledged that the analysis did not include every category of illicit activity tracked, noting that the excluded categories require “different methodologies” and are treated differently across data providers.
Binance remains subject to a three-year compliance monitoring program following its November 2023 guilty plea to anti-money laundering offenses and US sanctions violations, for which it incurred $4.3 billion in fines.
Cryptopolitan recently reported that the US Treasury Department pressured Binance to provide records related to that surveillance after reports that more than $1 billion in cryptocurrencies had flowed through the exchange to entities linked to Iran.
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