Tether Sued by Thai Businessmen over $42M USDT Freeze

Two Thai businessmen are suing Tether for freezing their USDT holdings worth tens of millions of dollars. The freeze was done at the informal request of a U.S. government agent without any warrant, order, or legal process.

The complaint filed in federal court states that Tether used its blacklist capability to target the plaintiffs' Ethereum (ETH) addresses. This move was made without the businessmen having any contract or relationship with Tether.

A seizure warrant came more than three months later on February 19th, 2026, seeking to destroy the frozen USDT and reissue it to a government wallet.

Tether's ability to freeze assets without court orders has been highlighted in a technical analysis. The company controls an on-chain blacklist via its addBlackList function, allowing freezes during investigations.