Onchain investigator ZachXBT tracked the remaining funds through various exchanges, instant swap services, and other blockchains. Tether subsequently froze $72 million in USDT connected to these transactions.
By Shaurya Malwa|Edited by Jamie Crawley Jun 12, 2026, 11:10 a.m. 2 min readMake preferred on ShareShare this articleCopy linkX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailMake preferred on (Azamat E/Unsplash)SummaryShow- An unidentified party transferred approximately $120 million in USDT stablecoins through a complicated series of swaps this week, which included significant purchases of the privacy coin Monero.
- The substantial buy orders for Monero caused its price to rise from around $330 to a peak of nearly $438, illustrating how limited liquidity can lead to pronounced market shifts.
- ZachXBT traced the remaining funds across various exchanges, instant swap services, and other blockchains.
- Tether later froze $72 million in USDT associated with these operations, which exhibit characteristics typical of money laundering.
This week, an unidentified entity executed a series of swaps involving $120 million in stablecoins, leading to a notable increase in Monero's price.
ZachXBT, an onchain investigator, reported in a Telegram update on Friday that an address received 120.2 million USDT on the Tron network the previous day. USDT, a widely-used stablecoin, is designed to maintain a stable value of $1, and Tron is a blockchain commonly utilized for cost-effective transfers.
The entity then began to divide the funds and direct them to various locations.
A portion of the funds was converted into Monero (XMR), a privacy-focused cryptocurrency that obscures transaction details, making it difficult to trace. The volume of buy orders was significant enough to influence the market, with ZachXBT noting that these transactions raised Monero's price from approximately $330 to $420.
The token reached an intraday peak of nearly $438 and was trading around $382 on Friday, reflecting an 8% increase for the day. Monero's trading volume is generally low, so large purchases can quickly affect its price.
The remaining funds were dispersed further. ZachXBT tracked over $12 million to deposit addresses at the KuCoin exchange and about $8 million to instant swap services, which facilitate fast conversions between cryptocurrencies often without identity verification.
An additional $8 million was transferred off Tron to the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks using Near Intents, a tool for cross-chain swaps. This method of distributing funds across various cryptocurrencies, exchanges, and blockchains is a common strategy to obscure the trail.
Subsequently, Tether intervened. The company has the ability to freeze USDT at specific addresses, and ZachXBT indicated that it blacklisted an address linked to the entity holding $72 million in USDT. Once frozen, these tokens become immobile and cannot be cashed out.
The origin of the $120 million remains uncertain. However, the patterns observed—rapid movement into a privacy coin, instant swaps, and cross-chain transactions—are typical of methods used for laundering illicit funds, and Tether's action suggests they arrived at a similar conclusion.