In the stablecoin ecosystem, the differences in compliance enforcement are much greater than you might imagine.

According to blockchain data analysis, between 2023 and 2025, Tether and Circle have taken completely different approaches to asset freezing. Tether has been very aggressive—freezing a total of $33 billion in crypto assets, with over 7,200 blacklisted addresses, of which more than 2,800 are in cooperation with US law enforcement agencies. This scale alone is already quite shocking.

What’s even more interesting is Tether’s operational logic. They don’t simply freeze assets and stop there, but adopt a complete mechanism of "freeze + destroy + reissue" to recover funds involved in scams and illegal activities. Data shows that over half of the frozen USDT are on the Tron network.

Circle’s approach is much more cautious. They only act when there is a court ruling or clear regulatory requirement, freezing 372 addresses and involving $109 million between 2023 and 2025. When comparing both sides, the gap reaches about 30 times. Circle has not yet taken measures such as token destruction or reissuance.

From this comparison, it’s clear that the two stablecoin issuers have different understandings and implementations of compliance—one is proactive, the other is reactive.