US prosecutors have frozen roughly $84 million in accounts of Capstone, a Montana‑based payments business, as part of a civil forfeiture complaint that alleges the firm moved funds at the direction of EQIBank.
Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, confirmed it is a customer of EQIBank but said the bank holds only about 0.034% of the group’s total assets.
The Justice Department alleges Capstone was unlicensed and transferred money to “hundreds of individuals and entities” on behalf of Tether and the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. A Tether spokesperson said the company had no knowledge of the alleged conduct and declined to comment on any impact to customers.
USDT’s market capitalization stands at approximately $184 billion.
