Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed on February 7, 2026, that the stablecoin issuer assisted Turkish authorities by freezing approximately $544 million (€460 million) in USDT tied to a large-scale illegal online gambling and money-laundering operation.
Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, Ardoino said the action followed a review of intelligence shared by law enforcement, stressing that Tether operates in compliance with local legal frameworks, similar to its cooperation with U.S. agencies such as the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
According to Turkish prosecutors in Istanbul, the frozen USDT belonged to Veysel Sahin, who is accused of running multiple unlawful betting platforms that processed funds through digital assets to obscure their origin.
The freeze forms part of a broader enforcement campaign in Turkey. Authorities have already seized more than $1 billion in total assets connected to the investigation, underscoring the scale of the alleged financial network and the growing role of blockchain analytics in tracing illicit flows.
Tether said the Turkish case reflects a wider global pattern of collaboration with regulators and investigators. To date, the company has assisted in over 1,800 investigations across 62 countries, resulting in the freezing of approximately $3.4 billion in USDT linked to suspected criminal activity.
The firm continues to emphasize that its ability to blacklist addresses at the smart-contract level allows for rapid response once credible legal requests are verified.
The incident also fits into a broader industry trend. By late 2025, stablecoin issuers, primarily Tether and Circle, had blacklisted roughly 5,700 wallets holding an estimated $2.5 billion in digital assets. Around 75% of those addresses contained USDT at the time they were frozen, highlighting Tether’s dominant footprint in global stablecoin usage.
The Turkish enforcement action illustrates the increasing intersection between state financial policing and on-chain infrastructure. As stablecoins continue to function as key settlement layers in global crypto markets, issuers like Tether are becoming central intermediaries in cross-border enforcement, balancing decentralised transfer rails with compliance obligations imposed by national authorities.
The case further reinforces that stablecoin issuers are no longer passive infrastructure providers, but active participants in global financial oversight.
