Stephanie Douse 
The company that made the stablecoin thinks that freezing secondary Tornado Cash addresses is too soon and is waiting for more information from U.S. authorities.
Tether, which makes stablecoins, has said again that it will not block Tornado Cash addresses. It also said that U.S. authorities or law enforcement have not yet asked it to do so.
“Unilaterally freezing secondary market addresses could be a very disruptive and risky move by Tether,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
The company behind the stablecoin USDT that is tied to the dollar said it wouldn’t block Tornado Cash addresses until the U.S. Treasury Department‘s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) tells it to. Tether said that freezing any of these addresses could be “highly disruptive and reckless” and could get in the way of ongoing regulatory investigations.
This month, a U.S. agency put the crypto-mixer Tornado Cash on a blacklist, saying that hackers from North Korea were using the protocol to make illegal transactions. The Treasury Department said it would be against the law to use the protocol or Ethereum addresses.
Circle, the company that makes the stablecoin USDC, blacklisted Tornado Cash smart contracts within hours of the ban. “We think USDC‘s move was too soon and could have hurt the work of other regulators and law enforcement agencies around the world if it was done without instructions from U.S. authorities,” Tether said.
Tether also said that Paxos, which makes the stablecoins BUSD and USDP and the algorithmic stablecoin DAI, which has 36% of its reserves in USDC, has not frozen Tornado Cash addresses.