Cross-border payment company Conduit sued Tether, accusing it of freezing 2.76 million USDT without reason
According to Decrypt, the cross-border payment company Conduit has filed a lawsuit against the stablecoin issuer Tether in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Conduit alleges that Tether unilaterally froze $2.76 million worth of USDT in its treasury wallet on September 24, 2025, and has refused to unfreeze it for over a year.The complaint shows that the freeze originated from a Brazilian police investigation into a third party, Onix, but Conduit claims that the wallet in question was created after Onix's last transaction and has never held Onix's funds. The Brazilian police did not mark the address, and the freeze decision was made independently by Tether's T3 Financial Crimes Department.Conduit states that the wallet freeze has caused a severe liquidity crisis, forcing the company to lay off employees and close offices; meanwhile, Tether continues to earn interest on the reserves corresponding to these funds by investing in U.S. Treasury bonds. The lawsuit seeks claims for conversion of property, unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty, and computer fraud, demanding the return of the funds.Recently, Tether has been involved in lawsuits due to on-chain freeze rights, with two Thai businessmen previously suing Tether for freezing $42.4 million in USDT earlier this year. This case has once again sparked controversy in the market regarding Tether's unilateral power to freeze USDT addresses.