Tether Sued Over $42 Million USDT Freeze Without Warrant
Two Thai entrepreneurs have filed a lawsuit against Tether in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, claiming that the company illegally froze 42.4 million USDT from their addresses.
The plaintiffs, Nuttawat Rukhammaichalern and Nattawat Kasamvilas, assert that Tether blacklisted ten Ethereum addresses holding a total of $42,417,785.62 in USDT on October 30, 2025, without obtaining a warrant or any formal legal order.
The freeze occurred after an informal request from a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) representative, the lawsuit alleges. The authorities later obtained an asset seizure warrant on February 19, 2026, which called for the destruction of the frozen USDT and issuance of equivalent tokens to be sent to a government-controlled wallet.