According to blockchain analysis firm Bitrace, Tether (referred to as USDT) has been widely used for illegal and gambling activities in Southeast Asia. Among the addresses monitored by Bitrace, the scale reached over $115 billion USDT in 2022. The flow of USDT has transferred risks to more addresses and platforms, making them passively associated with transactions on illegal platforms, with over $14.6 billion USDT flowing into trading platform accounts in 2022.

Based on high-risk on-chain address data and automated trace analysis technology, Bitrace monitors the flow of funds to and from addresses of certain major illicit platforms in Southeast Asia, identifying cryptocurrency funds related to illegal activities such as online gambling, fraud, money laundering, theft, extortion, and terrorism. In 2022, over $115 billion USDT flowed into addresses related to certain Southeast Asian platforms, including $37.16 billion in online gambling funds and $69.78 billion in money laundering funds. USDT related to fraud accounted for less than $460 million.

In 2022, more than $14.64 billion USDT was contaminated, flowing directly or indirectly into centralized trading platforms from known Southeast Asian entity-associated addresses. This includes $7.71 billion USDT in online gambling funds, $4.86 billion USDT in money laundering funds, $1.88 billion USDT in other illegal activity funds, and a small amount of USDT ($190 million) related to fraud.

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