US Authorities Move to Seize $84 Million from Banking Intermediary Linked to Tether

The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking to seize approximately $84.2 million in assets held in accounts and wallets associated with Capstone Limited. Prosecutors allege that Capstone acted as an unlicensed intermediary, facilitating hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions for Tether and Bitfinex through U.S. banking channels on behalf of EQIBank. The civil forfeiture action targets Capstone's assets, including funds at Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, as well as two wallets containing about 1.18 million USDT. Neither Tether nor Bitfinex are direct targets of the legal proceedings, and Tether stated its exposure to EQIBank is less than 0.034% of its total assets.