Nigeria’s $37 million USDT freeze connected to MEXC and KuCoin hot wallets

The Nigerian government has reportedly frozen four crypto wallets holding over $37 million in Tether’s USDT stablecoin, local media outlet Premium Times reported.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) sought the freeze, alleging the funds were involved in money laundering and terrorism financing. Abuja Federal High Court Judge Emeka Nwite approved this request on Aug. 9.

The EFCC’s application named four wallets, with one holding $37 million USDT and others containing smaller amounts—ranging from 90 to 967 and 443,512 USDT. The details of the wallets and their balances are as follows:

• TGVCWYLdeCyjmSpojd4n7hqfJp2ucwuGAx  — 960 USDT
• bclqd6803rg24sgh4pjaprvh47apvgmleps9zagdt — 90 USDT
• TB37WWozkkenGVYWD7Do2N5WT2CedqDktJ — 37,061,869.3 USDT
• TUpHuDkiCCmwaTZBHZvQdwWzGNm5t8J2b9 — 443,512.37 USDT

In his ruling, Judge Nwite stated:

“That an order of this honourable court is hereby made freezing the wallet addresses/accounts stated in the schedule below, which wallets are owned by individuals currently being investigated for offences of money laundering and terrorism financing, pending the conclusion of the investigation.”

While the court did not reveal the wallet owners’ identities, reports have suggested that they might be connected to the recent #EndBadGovernance protest in the African country.

The protests from Aug. 1 to 10 were triggered by widespread dissatisfaction with Nigeria’s economic and governance issues.

Wallets information

CryptoSlate’s analysis of the wallets using blockchain data from Arkham Intelligence showed that the wallets belonged to the hot wallets of some exchanges.

For context, the TGVCWY wallet contained only $16 and was last active on Aug. 3. Before Aug. 3, the address’s highest balance was $3,000, recorded in August 2023. Since then, it has had significant interactions with centralized exchanges like Binance, KuCoin, and OKX.

Additionally, Arkham’s data indicated that the wallets “TB37WW” and “TUpHuD” were associated with the hot wallets of the MEXC and KuCoin exchanges. The exchanges have yet to respond to CryptoSlate’s request for comment.

Furthermore, Arkham provided no data on the address “bclqd6803,” suggesting it may not exist.

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