U.S. prosecutors froze roughly $84 million in accounts linked to a Montana payments company. Tether says it held a small fraction of assets at the bank named in the complaint and denies knowledge of the alleged conduct.
Tether confirmed it was a customer of EQIBank but said assets there represented roughly 0.034% of the group's total assets.
The DOJ alleges Capstone, an unlicensed payments business, sent and received funds at the direction of EQIBank on behalf of multiple clients, including Tether and Bitfinex.
# What happened U.S. prosecutors filed a civil forfeiture complaint that led to the freezing of about $84 million in accounts tied to Capstone, a payments company based in Montana. The Department of Justice says Capstone operated without a license and moved funds on behalf of many individuals and entities.
# Where Tether fits in Capstone to send and receive money. Tether told Cointelegraph it was a customer of EQIBank but that the balances held there amounted to 0.034% of the group's total assets. The company said it had "no knowledge" of the conduct alleged in the complaint.
Tether and Bitfinex were both named in reporting tied to the seizure. The complaint alleges Capstone handled hundreds of millions of dollars at the direction of EQIBank, and that some movements of funds involved accounts linked to those firms.
# Immediate implications The seizure targets Capstone accounts specifically. Tether framed its position as limited exposure through a banking relationship, not direct involvement in the alleged payments activity. Tether did not answer a question about whether the seizure could affect its customers.
At the time of the report USDT had a market capitalization near $184 billion, which positions the frozen amounts as small relative to the stablecoin's overall market size.
# Why this matters to industry participants Banking relationships matter for stablecoin issuers and exchanges because funds move between fiat rails and crypto platforms. A U.S. forfeiture action that ties a payment processor and an offshore bank to alleged unlicensed activity raises questions about counterparty due diligence, reserve custody, and the legal exposure of intermediary firms.
That said, Tether's reporting of exposure at 0.034% of group assets signals the company views the risk as limited in scale. The DOJ complaint focuses on alleged unlawful payments conducted by Capstone rather than on Tether's reserves or broader operations.
# Questions still open
# Takeaway The DOJ action froze a sizable sum at a payment firm tied to EQIBank. Tether says the bank relationship involved a negligible portion of its assets and denies awareness of the alleged activity. For market participants, the episode is a reminder that third-party banking and payment partners can create legal and operational risk even when direct exposure appears small.
Tether says its EQIBank exposure is below 0.034% of assets as the offshore bank fights a U.S. forfeiture case involving $84.2 million.
TL;DR Tether says assets held with offshore banking partner EQIBank represent less than 0.034% of its total group assets. U.S. authorities are seeking forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars tied to EQIBank payment processor Capstone. Tether says it had no knowledge of the conduct alleged by prosecutors and has not d
An $84 million seizure raises a narrower question than the headline suggests What happened US federal prosecutors have moved to seize roughly $84.2 million tied to Capstone, a Montana-based payments company, under a civil forfeiture complaint filed in the Eastern District of California on 15 July 2026. A court order da
Court records identify Capstone-held accounts, while Tether has not disclosed whether its bank balance belongs to USDT reserves. The post An $84 million US asset seizure just sparked a massive question for Tether appeared first on CryptoSlate .
The post US Seizes $84M Tied to Tether and Bitfinex in Major Banking Crackdown appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News The U.S. Department of Justice has seized about $84.2 million from bank accounts linked to Capstone, a payment firm that handled hundreds of millions of dollars for Tether and Bitfinex But the seizure
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