TETHER FROZE A PAYMENTS FIRM’S $2.76 MILLION FOR 377 DAYS — THE SUIT SAYS NOBODY GAVE A REASON — A MONTH AFTER A $42.4 MILLION FREEZE SUIT IN THE SAME COURT

Conduit, a payments company that moves money across more than 100 countries using USDT and USDC, has sued Tether in federal court in Manhattan. Tether froze $2.76 million of Conduit’s USDT on September 24, 2025. By the time the suit was reported on October 6, 2026, the wallet had been locked for 377 days. Conduit says Tether never told it why, and had “no legal entitlement” to do it.

Conduit says Tether tied the wallet to a Brazilian federal police investigation into Onix, a former customer. Its answer: the wallet was created in May 2025, after Onix’s last transaction on its platform, and never held Onix funds, and a Brazilian court confirmed Conduit was not under investigation. It says the freeze forced layoffs and office closures while Tether kept earning interest on the Treasuries behind the frozen tokens. It wants the $2.76 million back plus $2.76 million more. Tether had not responded when the suit was reported.

It is not the first. In early September, two Thai businessmen sued Tether in the same court over $42.4 million it froze in October 2025. Their lawyer, Mark Beckett: “Tether froze our clients’ funds following an informal government request with no warrant, no court order, no legal process directed to Tether and no notice.” A seizure warrant came more than three months later.

A stablecoin is a balance in a company’s database with a blockchain address on it. The company keeps a freeze button, and pressing it needs no judge. Bitcoin held in your own keys has no issuer to call. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $85,460.