Tether temporarily blacklisted four THORChain vault addresses, freezing approximately 1.45 million USDT held within the network's funds, before unfreezing them hours later without explanation.
Chad Barraford, THORChain's technical co-founder, said the blacklisting occurred on X, reporting that trading on the network resumed about two hours after Tether unfroze all affected addresses.
"We don't know why this choice was made and have had no comms with USDT before this action and are actively reaching out to have a conversation," Barraford said. "We hope that this was made in error / misunderstanding."
Neither Tether nor THORChain responded to inquiries about the incident. The freeze highlights the centralized control stablecoin issuers retain over their assets, even when deployed across decentralized protocols and cross-chain vaults.
The incident follows other recent Tether freezes. Earlier this month, cross-border payments platform Conduit Technology sued Tether, alleging the company froze $2.76 million in USDT in a wallet connected to a 2024 investigation by Brazilian authorities.
In August, two Thai nationals sued Tether, claiming the stablecoin issuer froze $42.4 million in USDT following an alleged informal request from U.S. Homeland Security Investigations. These cases underscore the unilateral power stablecoin issuers hold over asset movement, regardless of their deployment across decentralized networks.
