Tether’s temporary block disrupted THORChain TRON swaps

Tether temporarily blacklisted four THORChain vault addresses on the TRON network on October 9, restricting transfers of about 1.45 million USDT and disrupting the protocol’s TRON operations. By later that day, the addresses appeared to have been unfrozen, and TRON USDT swaps were reported to have resumed. Tether has not publicly explained the action in the information available. THORChain technical cofounder Chad Barraford said the protocol received no advance communication from Tether and did not know why the addresses had been blocked. He said the team was seeking an explanation. Barraford later reported that the addresses appeared unfrozen; researcher Khal subsequently reported that swaps had resumed. The restriction affected four of THORChain’s six TRON vaults, according to Khal, who said they held 93% of the protocol’s TRON USDT. He also reported that about $363,000 in payouts queued during the interruption. Those figures were attributed to the researcher and were not independently detailed in the other accounts. The pause affected TRON swaps and related liquidity-provider operations. THORChain uses vaults on external blockchains to hold assets and facilitate transactions.