Tether blocks cryptocurrency tokens of Russians

The cryptocurrency exchange Garantex has faced the blocking of a large amount of its customers' funds. The company announced this on its official Telegram channel.

Tether, which issues the USDT stablecoin, has frozen cryptocurrency on Garantex wallets totaling 2.5 billion rubles. Due to this incident, the trading platform stopped working, officially announcing that it was conducting «technical work.» The exchange’s Russian clients stormed social media, but fortunately, this did not change the situation.

According to the exchange, Tether has taken action against Russian cryptocurrency market users by blocking Garantex wallets. This is reminiscent of the situation when other exchanges massively blocked services for Russians in 2022. As a result, the platform temporarily suspended all services, including cryptocurrency withdrawals, to resolve the situation.

Representatives of Garantex expressed concern that all USDT tokens held on Russian cryptocurrency wallets could be at risk of being blocked. This is hardly technically possible, but such a step on the part of Tether would be most successful.