Conduit Sues Tether Over Freezing 2.76 Million USDT in Corporate Wallet Dispute

Conduit has filed a complaint over Tether’s decision to block access to a corporate wallet holding 2.76 million USDT, saying the freeze was imposed on Tether’s own initiative and without a court order or official government demand. For high-risk PSPs, the interesting part is not the number alone; it is the mechanism: who gets to decide when a wallet is frozen, and on what evidence.

1. The complaint says Tether restricted access through its financial-crime unit, using its own criteria rather than a judicial order or a formal request from authorities. Conduit argues that the freeze was not tied to any direct legal instruction.
2. Tether, according to Conduit, linked the block to a Brazilian police investigation into Onix Intermediações, a former customer of the payment provider, which is suspected of money laundering through cryptocurrency and illegal financial operations. Conduit says Brazilian law enforcement did not ask for the address to be frozen.
3. Conduit also says Onix stopped working with the company before the disputed wallet was created, and that Onix’s funds never passed through that wallet. The company describes the balance as its own working capital.
4. In the complaint, Conduit says losing access to the funds hurt business liquidity, forcing it to close some offices and cut staff. It is asking Tether to restore access, pay damages at least equal to the blocked assets, and pay a penalty.
5. Conduit is also claiming any income Tether earned during the freeze from U.S. Treasury bills used to back issued USDT. That detail matters because it turns a freeze dispute into a fight over both the principal and the yield.

The case lands in a familiar place for high-risk operators: the line between compliance action and unilateral asset control. Conduit is not the only party testing that line. Earlier, two Thai businessmen filed a federal lawsuit in New York against Tether over a 42.4 million USDT freeze, saying the issuer restricted access before U.S. authorities obtained court approval to seize the assets.