stable coins
By Bruce Buterin
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The Core Legal Fight: Warrant Timing and Tether's Authority. Corporate attorney Ariel Givner weighed in on the case.
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Pig Butchering Schemes Keep Landing in Court. Pig butchering scams have exploded as a global enforcement priority.
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What This Could Mean for Stablecoin Issuers. If the court sides with the plaintiffs on the warrant timing issue, it probably won't unwind the…
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Two Thai businessmen took Tether to court in New York. Their claim: Tether froze $42.4 million in USDT back in October 2025 without any formal legal authority to do so. No warrant.
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The pair admit they were caught up in a $61 million pig butchering scheme — that's not in dispute.
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The plaintiffs want those funds unfrozen. They're also seeking punitive damages.
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Corporate attorney Ariel Givner weighed in on the case. Per Givner, the plaintiffs aren't denying the government's claims about the scam proceeds. That's basically off the table.
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And it's not a small question. Tether is the world's largest stablecoin issuer by market cap, and it's well-known in the industry that Tether has historically cooperated with law…
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There's a financial angle too. The lawsuit argues that while the funds sat frozen, Tether continued earning returns on the reserves backing those USDT tokens.
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That's the part that probably stings most for the plaintiffs, even beyond the principal amount.
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Pig butchering scams have exploded as a global enforcement priority. The scheme type — where fraudsters build fake romantic or investment relationships with victims before…
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More context: Tether Challenges BIS with Strong Defense of $183B Stablecoin Reserves
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In a related case, a US court sentenced a dual national from China and St. Kitts and Nevis to 20 years in prison for running a separate $73 million pig butchering operation.
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Law enforcement across multiple jurisdictions has leaned heavily on stablecoin issuers to freeze assets quickly, often before paperwork catches up.
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The plaintiffs aren't arguing they're innocent of the underlying fraud. They're arguing Tether jumped the gun. And that's actually a harder argument to dismiss than it sounds.
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