Two Months Before $6.3 Billion Binance Hack, Tether and Tron Quietly Shut Down T3 Crime Unit

The T3 Financial Crime Unit — an anti-crime partnership established in 2024 by Tron, Tether and TRM Labs and later expanded to include Binance — was quietly wound down in late August, according to Bloomberg on Wednesday, about two months before the record Binance hack.

Citing sources, Bloomberg wrote that the partnership unraveled over the previous year due to slow response times and insufficient coordination. One source stated that the unit was ended in August. None of the companies made a public announcement at the time. Tron, Tether and TRM acknowledged the initiative had wrapped up, but did not comment on the specifics of the Bloomberg report. Binance offered no comment.

A Tron DAO spokesperson told Bloomberg: “While the very successful T3 program has concluded, Tron remains committed to working to help stop illicit activities on the blockchain, in partnership with law enforcement.” The spokesperson added that Tron would share details of a new anti-crime initiative at a later time.

A Tether representative stated that the company will continue collaborating with TRM to block suspicious funds and is involved in Beacon Network, a real-time intelligence-sharing system that TRM launched in August 2025. Tether is also developing the Financial Access and Systemic Empowerment Foundation (FASE Foundation), which CEO Paolo Ardoino introduced on X on Oct. 31.

According to Ari Redbord, TRM’s global head of policy and government affairs, “T3 achieved extraordinary things” and “Beacon Network builds on that work.”

Why T3 was created

Tron, Tether and TRM launched T3 in September 2024 as a public-private initiative targeting the illegal use of USDT on the Tron blockchain. The selling point was rapid response. TRM provided blockchain analytics, Tron offered network overview, and Tether contributed the authority to freeze tokens at the issuer level.

In August 2025, the unit announced it had frozen over $250 million in criminal assets in under 12 months. Simultaneously, it unveiled T3+, a program for external partners, with Binance as its inaugural participant. The first collaboration with the exchange locked up nearly $6 million connected to a pig-butchering scheme.

The amounts continued to increase. TRM reported in February that the T3 total exceeded $300 million, around the same time it publicized a $70 million Series C funding round. By May, the unit said it had frozen over $450 million and was cooperating with authorities across 23 jurisdictions on five continents, such as the U.S., Spain, Germany, Brazil and the U.K.

The May statement further noted that the unit froze assets within 24 hours of receiving law enforcement requests in account takeover and violent crime cases. It did not reference the coordination issues that Bloomberg later identified. TRM said that the Financial Action Task Force highlighted T3 in November 2025 guidance as a standard model for public-private enforcement.

T3's quiet dissolution before the Binance hack

The closure is significant because it occurred before the biggest heist in crypto history. Binance estimated its Oct. 29 loss at $6.34 billion, and blockchain forensics firms have connected the incident to North Korea.

Tron has become a central laundering pathway. According to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic in a Thursday update, about $220 million of the stolen TRX has moved through the Tron network, representing the majority of laundering so far.

Even without T3, the industry managed to freeze a substantial portion of the stolen funds. Tether stated it froze over $1.567 billion in USDT after the hack, and according to CNBC citing Elliptic, about $2.85 billion of the stolen assets have been frozen or confiscated.

The authority to freeze USDT lies solely with Tether, not with the coalition. T3’s value was providing a unified channel for law enforcement in 23 jurisdictions to simultaneously contact the issuer, the blockchain, and an analytics firm.

It remains uncertain whether Tron's promised successor will restore that framework, and which other entities might participate.