The issuer of the stablecoin Tether said it had limited exposure through assets held at a bank that, according to reports, instructed the payments company to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars on its behalf.
In response to messages linking Tether and Bitfinex to a payments company based in Montana mentioned in a civil forfeiture lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, a company representative told Cointelegraph that it was “unaware” of any alleged activities. Tether confirmed that it was a client of EQIBank—the bank, according to the Department of Justice’s claim, that instructed the payment company Capstone to send and receive funds—but the amount held at the bank was 0.034% of the group’s total assets.
As reported, US prosecutors froze about $84 million in Capstone accounts as part of a lawsuit. Justice Department representatives said the company had no license and made payments to "hundreds of physical and legal entities" on behalf of Tether and Bitfinex, according to the Financial Times.
Tether did not respond to a question about how the seizure could affect its customers. As of Friday, the stablecoin USDT’s market capitalization was about $184 billion.