US Prosecutors Freeze $89 Million at Tether Partner Bank EQIBank

US prosecutors have frozen $89 million in assets held by EQIBank, a partner bank used by Tether for remittance processing. Tether stated that the frozen funds represent less than 0.034% of its total assets and that the USDT peg remains unaffected. The incident highlights the counterparty risks associated with the complex banking networks used by stablecoin issuers to manage customer deposits and redemptions. The freeze originated from a civil forfeiture lawsuit against payment processor Capstone, which allegedly misrepresented its business activities to banks.