Crypto Today: Tether Freezes $500M in USDT in 30 days, BlockSec Data Shows

Today in crypto, BlockSec data shows Tether froze over $500 million in USDT across 370 Ethereum and Tron addresses in 30 days, Coinbase shares fell after reporting a $400 million net loss in Q1, and fund managers warm back up to digital assets, with Bitcoin continuing to dominate allocation preferences.

Tether freezes over $500 million of USDT in 30 days: BlockSec

Tether has frozen more than $514 million in USDT across Ethereum and Tron over the past 30 days, according to onchain data from BlockSec’s USDT Freeze Tracker, highlighting the stablecoin issuer’s growing role in crypto-related enforcement actions.

As of Friday, the tool shows 370 addresses blacklisted in that period, including 328 on Tron and 42 on Ethereum, with about $505.9 million frozen on Tron and $8.73 million on Ethereum.

The figures indicate that most recent enforcement activity is concentrated on Tron and highlight how often the world’s largest stablecoin issuer is intervening onchain to immobilize funds flagged as high-risk or linked to investigations.

The recent activity also builds on a pattern of increasingly frequent enforcement. BlockSec’s analysis of 2025 data found that Tether blacklisted 4,163 unique addresses across Ethereum and Tron, freezing a total of $1.26 billion in USDT. The current pace of freezes suggests Tether could exceed that total in blacklisted USDT well before the end of the year.

Of the $1.26 billion of frozen assets in 2025, more than half (about $698 million) was later destroyed via the contracts’ “destroyBlackFunds” function, and only 3.6% of those addresses were subsequently removed from the blacklist, indicating that once imposed, freezes are rarely reversed.

A separate study of 2023-2025 trends estimated that Tether immobilized roughly $3.3 billion across 7,268 addresses in those three years, far outpacing rival stablecoin issuer Circle over the same horizon.

USDT Freeze Tracker. Source: BlockSec

Coinbase shares slide on $400 million Q1 loss, revenue miss

Coinbase shares slid Thursday after the US crypto exchange reported a steep first-quarter loss while revenue missed Wall Street expectations.

Coinbase reported a net loss of $394.1 million in Q1, its second consecutive quarterly loss after reporting a $667 million loss in Q4 2025. It swung from a $65.6 million profit a year earlier. 

“Macro conditions were genuinely tough,” Coinbase chief financial officer Alesia Haas told investors on an earnings call. “Total crypto market cap and total crypto trading volume were both down more than 20% quarter-over-quarter.”

Coinbase’s earnings come as other crypto companies have also struggled to turn a profit in the first months of 2026 as a crypto market slump pushed some traders to other investments.

Meanwhile, Coinbase’s Q1 revenue was $1.41 billion, missing analyst estimates of $1.5 billion. Transaction revenue slumped 40%, while subscription and services revenue — representing its business outside trading — fell 13.5% from a year earlier. 

Its earnings per share were a $1.49 loss, compared to analysts' expectations of 36 cents per share, which saw Coinbase dropping by 4.7% after hours on Thursday to under $184.

Fund managers double down on Bitcoin as crypto sentiment rebounds — CoinShares

Fund managers are warming back up to digital assets, with Bitcoin continuing to dominate allocation preferences even as broader crypto sentiment improves, according to a new survey by CoinShares.

The April survey gathered responses from 26 institutional investors overseeing a combined $1.3 trillion in assets under management. Allocations to digital assets remain relatively modest, at around 1%, reflecting what CoinShares described as “typical entry sizing” in the current de-risking environment.

“Bitcoin remains the digital asset with the most compelling growth outlook,” CoinShares head of research James Butterfill wrote in the report. Sentiment toward Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) also improved modestly compared with previous quarters.

The findings suggest institutional investors are gradually increasing exposure to crypto amid improving market sentiment, growing adoption of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and a more favorable regulatory backdrop.

Fund managers identified Bitcoin as having the strongest growth outlook among digital assets, followed by Ether and Solana. Source: CoinShares