Glossary

Defined by what happens on-chain, not by how serious it sounds.

Blacklist

A flag an issuer sets on its own contract. The contract then refuses every transfer out of that address, while transfers in still succeed.

Freeze

The everyday word for being blacklisted. Tether's contracts need two signatures and the first is public; Circle's USDC uses a single address, so there is no warning step.

Pending freeze

A proposal with one signature, waiting for the second. The wallet still works, and this is the only window in which anything can be done.

Burn — destroyBlackFunds

Tether destroys the blacklisted balance and reissues it to a recovery address. Irreversible; 2,224 addresses in our records reached this state.

Unban

Removal of the flag, by the same two-signature process in reverse.

OFAC

The U.S. Treasury office that administers sanctions and publishes the SDN list.

SDN list

Specially Designated Nationals — people and entities U.S. persons may generally not transact with. We track 75 entities holding 991 addresses across 8 chains.

Designation

A government naming a person on a sanctions list. Not a freeze: that is an issuer acting on its contract, and either can happen without the other.

Counterparty

Any address a wallet has sent to or received from. Screening one is the point of a check.

Indirect exposure

Value that reached a wallet through an intermediary. Measured as a share of volume, not a count of addresses — counting makes a busy wallet look safer the busier it gets.

Freeze contagion

Follow-on freezes among a frozen wallet's counterparties. Of 779,678 exposed wallets, 1,349 were later frozen — median gap 123 seconds, so it is a same-batch effect rather than a slow spread.

Dusting

A tiny unsolicited transfer, sometimes from a flagged address, sent to make a wallet look connected. You cannot refuse it and receiving it costs nothing.

Hop

One step in a chain of transfers. Two hops means your counterparty dealt with a flagged wallet; three means theirs did.

Compiled 06 September 2026. An information tool, not legal or compliance advice.