Tether Sued Over the Freezing of 42.4 Million USDT

• Two entrepreneurs from Thailand have filed a lawsuit against Tether in federal court in New York.
• The plaintiffs claim the company froze 42.4 million USDT before authorities obtained an asset seizure warrant.

Two entrepreneurs from Thailand — Nuttawat Rukhammaichalern and Nattawat Kasamvilas — filed a lawsuit against Tether in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. They are challenging the freeze of about 42.4 million USDT, which they say occurred without a court warrant or any other formal legal order. 

According to the complaint, on October 30, 2025, Tether blacklisted ten addresses on the Ethereum network holding a total of 42,417,785.62 USDT. The plaintiffs said the company acted after an informal request from a representative of the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit. 

At the time of the freeze, the lawsuit alleges, authorities had not obtained a warrant, court order, or subpoena.

According to the plaintiffs, they acquired the stablecoins through secondary market transactions and had no direct contractual relationship with Tether. The plaintiffs argue that the issuer’s technical ability to freeze USDT at the smart contract level does not, by itself, give the company the right to control third-party assets. 

US authorities obtained an asset seizure warrant later — on February 19, 2026. The lawsuit materials say the document called for the destruction of the frozen USDT and the issuance of an equivalent number of tokens, followed by their transfer to a government-controlled wallet.

The plaintiffs also insist that the disputed 42.4 million USDT remained frozen at the time the lawsuit was filed. Among other things, they are seeking to lift the restrictions on the addresses, block the destruction of the tokens, recover potential damages, and reclaim income that, in their view, Tether may have earned from the reserves backing the frozen assets.

As of publication, Tether has not issued a public response to the lawsuit. The court has also not yet ruled on ownership of the assets or the company’s liability.

Previously, Tether has repeatedly frozen large amounts of USDT as part of cooperation with law enforcement. In particular, in one month in 2026, the company froze more than $514 million across 370 addresses on the Ethereum and TRON networks.

Сообщение Tether Sued Over the Freezing of 42.4 Million USDT появились сначала на INCRYPTED.