Cross-border payments platform Conduit Technology has sued stablecoin issuer Tether in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging that Tether froze $2.76 million in USDT without explanation or legal entitlement.
According to the complaint filed Monday, Conduit began holding USDT as part of its digital treasury wallet in May 2025. The company claims Tether froze all $2.76 million on September 24, 2025, with no justification, materially impacting its business operations.
The freeze and alleged connection
Conduit alleges in the lawsuit that Tether identified the company's treasury wallet as tied to Bull Intermediação de Negócios and Onix using its own criteria, connecting it to a Brazilian federal police investigation launched in 2024. Conduit states it has repeatedly requested that Tether unfreeze the funds but has not received access as of the filing date.
"The funds are unequivocally Conduit's, but Tether has taken them and is denying Conduit access to them," the complaint states, adding that "Tether is not allowed to take money from businesses just because they chose to store that money in Tether's currency."
Tether did not provide an immediate response to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
Recent pattern of freezes
The lawsuit follows a similar case filed about a month earlier, in which two Thai nationals sued Tether for allegedly freezing $42.4 million in USDT following an informal request from US Homeland Security Investigations. Those frozen funds were connected to a $61 million pig butchering case with a seizure warrant issued in February by the US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
