Crypto and decentralization were built so no one could ever freeze your money

Yet two companies still have the power to control any wallet on chain
Tether has frozen $3.3 billion across 7,268 wallets
Circle has frozen $109 million across 372 more
Both USDT and USDC have a blacklist function built into their smart contracts
In January Tether froze $182 million in a single day across five wallets on Tron, which is more than Circle has ever frozen in total
In March Circle froze 16 wallets at once over a sealed civil lawsuit
None of them were connected to each other, they were exchanges, payment processors, and forex platforms running normal business
One even turned out to be a blockchain bridge used by thousands of people who had nothing to do with the case
ZachXBT called it the most incompetent freeze he'd seen in five years
Tether gave the FBI and Secret Service direct access to flag wallets on their platform that means law enforcement can now target addresses and Tether freezes first, then asks questions later
Once frozen, tokens get burned and reissued to a government wallet
Your money doesn't get locked, it gets taken away from you
Some freezes actually made sense
$225 million from an investment fraud, $61 million from romance scams, $23 million from a sanctioned Russian exchange
The same tool that catches scammers also froze 16 innocent businesses overnight because a judge signed a sealed order and nobody checked
Two companies control the kill switch for the most used assets in the entire market and we still call it decentralized