The Conduit Technology filed a lawsuit against companies in the Tether group in the United States, accusing the USDT issuer of keeping US$ 2.76 million of its working capital frozen for more than a year. The lawsuit was filed on Monday (5) in the District Court for the Southern District of New York. The allegations have not yet been reviewed by the court.
According to the lawsuit, Conduit created the wallet in May 2025 to store funds used for international payments. Tether allegedly blocked the entire balance on September 24, 2025, without informing the company of a specific justification.
The measure was reportedly related to an investigation by the Brazilian Federal Police involving companies that had a business relationship with Conduit. The company maintains, however, that its wallet was not among the addresses originally identified by the authorities and that it was not the target of the investigation.
Documents cited in the lawsuit reportedly indicate that suspicious addresses were forwarded to Tether, which allegedly applied its own criteria to decide which wallets to freeze. Conduit argues that its address was improperly included. This is the version presented by the company and has not yet been validated in court.
Conduit seeks unblocking and compensation
The company says the wallet processed more than US$ 1.1 billion in about four months before the freeze. According to the lawsuit, the loss of access to the capital impaired its ability to settle payments and contributed to layoffs and office closures.
Conduit requests the unblocking of the USDT, minimum compensation of US$ 2.76 million and additional compensation for any losses.
The case also draws attention to a characteristic of centralized stablecoins. Although USDT circulates on a blockchain, Tether maintains the technical and administrative capacity to freeze certain tokens.
The legal dispute should determine whether that power was exercised legitimately in Conduit's case. So far, none of the allegations presented by the company has been recognized by the court as proven fact.
