Conduit sues Tether over $2.76 million freeze, claims no legal basis for seizure
Conduit filed a lawsuit alleging Tether froze $2.76 million of its USDT in September 2025 without legal justification and has refused to return it for over a year. Brazilian Federal Police confirmed they did not identify Conduit's wallet for freezing and do not know what criteria Tether used.
Conduit filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on October 6, 2026, alleging that Tether froze $2.76 million of its USDT in September 2025 and has refused to return it for over a year without legal justification, according to Protos. The fintech company claims Tether acted unilaterally to freeze and seize control of its funds based on undisclosed criteria, and continues to profit from the frozen reserves.
Protos reported that Tether repeatedly referred Conduit to a contact in the Brazilian Federal Police with no context for the referral and did not substantively respond to Conduit's requests to unfreeze the funds. However, Brazilian Federal Police confirmed to Protos that they did not identify Conduit's wallet for freezing and do not know what evaluation criteria, if any, led Tether to freeze the funds.
According to Protos, the police had asked Tether to freeze wallets linked to Onix Intermediações Ltda, which had used Conduit's platform. Onix shares common ownership with Bull Intermediação de Negócios Ltda, which was under investigation. However, Conduit says Onix or its funds have not interacted with the frozen treasury wallet, and the wallet did not even exist when Onix was using Conduit's platform. Decrypt reported the treasury wallet was created in May 2025, nearly a month after Onix's last transaction on the platform.