Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, has taken an undisclosed strategic stake in blockchain-analytics firm Crystal Intelligence. The investment gives Tether permanent access to Crystal’s real-time risk-monitoring, fraud-detection and regulatory-intelligence tools, which the companies say will strengthen efforts to trace illicit use of stablecoins and aid law-enforcement investigations. The two firms have already collaborated on Scam Alert, a public database that flags wallet addresses tied to scams. Tether said it has worked with 255 law-enforcement agencies in 55 jurisdictions and has frozen more than $2.7 billion in suspect stablecoins to date. Crypto-related crime remains a growing concern. The FBI logged $9.3 billion in U.S. digital-asset fraud losses last year, up 66% from 2023. “Misuse USDT, and law enforcement will find you,” Tether Chief Executive Officer Paolo Ardoino said in a statement, calling the investment a further step toward “future-proofing” the sector’s compliance infrastructure.