- An unknown entity routed about $120 million in USDT stablecoins through a complex series of swaps this week, including large purchases of the privacy coin Monero.
- The Monero buy orders were big enough to push its price from roughly $330 to an intraday high near $438, highlighting how thin liquidity can amplify market moves.
- Onchain sleuth ZachXBT traced remaining funds across exchanges, instant swap services and other blockchains.
- Tether later froze $72 million in USDT linked to the activity, which bears hallmarks of money laundering.
Someone routed $120 million in stablecoins through a chain of swaps this week, and a sudden jump in the Monero price made it visible.
Onchain investigator ZachXBT said in a Telegram broadcast earlier Friday that an address received 120.2 million USDT on the Tron network on Thursday. USDT is the largest stablecoin, a crypto token built to hold a steady $1 value, and Tron is a blockchain often used to move it cheaply.
The entity then began splitting the money up and sending it in different directions.
Some of it went into Monero (XMR), a privacy coin designed to hide who sends and receives funds, which makes it hard to trace. The buy orders were large enough to move the market, and ZachXBT said these orders saw XMR surge as much as 33% from $330 to a high of $438.
The token traded around $382 during the European morning on Friday, about 8% higher on the day. Monero does not trade in large volumes, so a single big buy can swing the price fast.
