US authorities seize $89 million from EQIBank, freezing Tether funds
Tether’s offshore banking partner EQIBank has frozen a portion of the stablecoin issuer’s funds after US authorities seized $89 million tied to a payment processor, reviving questions about how much of Tether’s $190 billion reserve is kept offshore. Tether says the affected exposure is less than 0.034% of its total assets but has not disclosed a dollar figure or its wider offshore banking footprint.
- Tether says its EQIBank exposure represents less than 0.034% of total assets, without confirming a dollar figure.
- US authorities seized roughly $89 million from Capstone Ltd accounts held at Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, per EQIBank’s own filing.
- The seizure took about 80% of EQIBank’s total monetary holdings, pushing the Dominica-licensed bank toward possible liquidation.
- 0.034% Tether’s stated exposure share of its total reserves
- $89M funds US authorities seized from EQIBank-linked accounts
- $190B Tether’s total reported reserves in its latest attestation
Tether Holdings has funds trapped at EQIBank, a digital bank licensed in Dominica that is now warning it could face liquidation after a US asset seizure tied to one of its payment processors. The exposure was detailed in a report by BeInCrypto, which built on earlier reporting from The Information that first identified the freeze. Tether has confirmed only that the exposure is limited, without naming EQIBank directly or disclosing the amount involved.
EQIBank Fights to Recover $89 Million Seized From Capstone Accounts
EQIBank is fighting to recover approximately $89 million that US authorities seized from accounts tied to payment processor Capstone Ltd. According to the bank’s own court filing, the frozen funds sat at Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase before the seizure went through.
The action stripped EQIBank of roughly 80% of its total monetary holdings. That scale is why the bank has warned liquidation is now a real possibility, the backdrop against which Tether’s own deposits got stuck.
OffshoreAlert flagged the case in a February 10, 2026 post under the #offshorealert tag, noting EQIBank had also been sued for securities fraud in the US.
Tether’s 0.034% Figure Hides a Bigger Offshore Question
A single bank holding 0.034% of Tether’s assets is not alarming on its own against reserves near $190 billion, most held in US Treasuries and money market funds. What remains undisclosed is the total share of Tether’s reserves parked across offshore banks generally, the figure that would show real concentration risk rather than a single incident.
Reserve concentration at smaller banks has triggered runs before. Several US firms lost deposit access when Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in 2023. Tether’s reserve cushion has also been shrinking even after a clean 2025 audit, a detail that sharpens the question of whether it could absorb several offshore shocks at once.
EQIBank’s Case Stays Active in a California Federal Court
The underlying seizure case remains active before a federal judge in California, with EQIBank still pursuing the return of the $89 million that represents 80% of its holdings. No ruling date has been set, and Tether has not indicated when, or whether, it will publish a broader accounting of its offshore banking relationships.
The CCS read. The figure that matters here is not the 0.034%, it is the one Tether still has not published: what share of its $190 billion in reserves sits with offshore banks rather than Treasuries. Institutional holders pricing USDT counterparty risk need that breakdown, not a single-incident disclosure, before treating this as resolved.
Tether has not committed to a timeline for disclosing its full offshore banking exposure, and EQIBank’s fight to recover the $89 million remains pending before the California court with no ruling date set.
