The United States does not freeze USDT transactions in Venezuela, not because it cannot or does not want to, but because there are greater incentives not to. For now.

USDT adoption in Venezuela has grown rapidly in recent months. While Venezuelans have found in this stablecoin, issued by Tether, a gateway to the global market for years, as well as a safe haven asset against the devaluation of the bolivar and the country's inflation, since June of this year Venezuela has increased its use of USDT to facilitate currency exchange.

This measure responds to the reduction in oil revenues, exacerbated by restrictions such as the recent limited license granted to Chevron by the U.S. Treasury Department, which prohibits direct payments to the Venezuelan government. There is a shortage of dollars in the country, and its digital version in stablecoins has been the solution.

Unlike the Petro, which encountered strong resistance, the dollar enjoys high esteem among the Venezuelan population, so dollar-pegged stablecoins found fertile ground for adoption in the country.

The use of USDT allows private companies to exchange bolivars for this digital currency through authorized exchanges, such as Crixto and Kontigo, provided they have wallets approved by the authorities.

According to Ecoanalítica, approximately $119 million worth of cryptocurrencies were sold to the private sector in July, while the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) injected 14% less dollars and euros into the foreign exchange market in the first seven months of 2025, compared to the previous year. By September, government settlements in USDT exceeded those in dollars, according to Asdrúbal Oliveros, director of this economic consulting firm.

The problem with this, as various analysts have warned, is that Tether, as well as any other issuer of centralized stablecoins, can freeze funds.

Unlike Bitcoin, which is a digital commodity, USDT is issued by a regulated entity subject to the law, which maintains close collaboration with US agencies such as FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network), OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control), and the Department of the Treasury.

In practice, this means that the company can freeze addresses linked to crimes, terrorism, or sanctioned governments, even without a court order. According to reports from CriptoNoticias, two years ago, in 2023, Tether froze more than 160 digital addresses as part of its regulatory compliance policy.

If OFAC has maintained sanctions against Venezuelan officials since 2015, and if the State Department also imposed sanctions on transactions involving Petros and any other cryptocurrency by Venezuela since 2018, why haven't they decided to intensify economic pressure and block USDT funds? Probably because the incentives not to do so are greater.

USDT transactions are public and traceable. Highly sophisticated chain analysis tools exist, such as Chainalysis and Arkham, whose researchers and analysts specialize in identifying addresses and linking them to potential owners. Thus, we know the addresses of the United States, the United Kingdom, BlackRock, or even Satoshi Nakamoto, and anyone can track their movements in real time.

Chain analysis allows for clustering or grouping transactions to identify business relationships between groups. It can also identify total holdings, payment volumes, and the days and times when transactions and exchanges for other cryptocurrencies occur. It can even be used to perform transaction risk analysis to determine if a transaction has been linked to illicit activities in its history.

We hypothesize that if Tether or other stablecoin issuers like Circle haven't frozen their assets due to government demands, it's because the data they are leaking through their transactions is more useful to the United States than mere confiscation. This situation, within the current context of relations between the two countries, is undoubtedly another piece on the geopolitical chessboard.

Meanwhile, until the bitcoinization process takes place, USDT offers temporary relief to Venezuelans, but Venezuela remains at the mercy of external decisions. The use of USDT depends largely on the will of the United States. As long as the information they are gathering through chain analysis is useful, USDT can be used in Venezuela. But the decision of whether or not to allow it depends on US incentives.