Tether-backed Chilean cryptocurrency exchange Orionx has announced its shutdown after a forensic audit confirmed the outflow of more than $7 million from the exchange to wallets not under the company’s control.

 

Announcing the closure, Orionx said in an official statement that it had filed a complaint with Chile’s Public Prosecutor’s Office against the exchange’s former executives and co-founders, Roberto Zibert and Joaquín Díaz, accusing them of disloyal administration.

 

 

In the complaint, the exchange accused its former executives of moving customers’ crypto assets, including Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, and Polygon, between 2018 and 2021. Orionx said the transactions were concealed from the exchange and that the assets were transferred to wallets that did not belong to the company.

 

Although a breakdown of Deloitte’s $7 million shortfall has yet to be published, several Chilean news outlets, including La Tercera and BioBioChile, reported that the shortfall included $3.93 million worth of Bitcoin, $2.29 million worth of Ether, and approximately $201 worth of Polygon.

 

Closure Plans

 

As part of its shutdown plans, Orionx has temporarily suspended withdrawals from the exchange. While the asset closure and restitution plans have already been reported to the relevant authority, the exchange said it would do everything in its power to return as many assets as possible to its clients.

 

Prior to its closure announcement, Chile’s Financial Market Commission (CMF) rejected Orionx SpA’s application in June to register with the Registry of Financial Service Providers and obtain authorization under the Fintech Law.

 

Orionx was one of seven companies whose applications were rejected by the CMF due to observations that the companies failed to remedy during the evaluation process, as well as failures to submit the necessary documentation.

 

 

Two Thai businessmen, Nutthawat Rukthammachalern and Natthawat Kasamvilas, have filed a lawsuit against stablecoin issuer Tether over the alleged seizure of $42.4 million worth of USDT.

 

The lawsuit, which was filed by the plaintiffs this week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, challenges the seizure of the crypto funds by the stablecoin issuer, alleging that it was carried out without proper legal backing.

 

According to the suit filed with the court, the plaintiffs claim that the seizure involved funds held across 10 Ethereum addresses that were blacklisted by Tether. They allege that the blacklist was created solely based on an informal request from a U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent and without a warrant, court order, or other formal legal process.

 

 

Defending how the funds were obtained, the plaintiffs claimed that the frozen USDT assets were acquired through secondary market business transactions that had no direct relationship with Tether whatsoever.

 

Post-seizure Recovery Efforts

 

After discovering that Tether had frozen the funds October last year, one of the plaintiffs, Natthawat Kasamvilas, emailed the stablecoin issuer to inquire why he could no longer control the funds and asked to regain full custody of them.

 

However, Kasamvilas claimed that Tether replied by asking him to contact a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), whose email address the company provided, while failing to provide a legal basis for the freeze.

 

Although earlier this year, in February, a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the Eastern District of North Carolina ordered the seizure of $61 million worth of USDT that was reportedly linked to a pig butchering and money laundering scam, the plaintiffs claim that the seizure of their funds occurred months before the judge issued the order. They also allege that Tether continued to earn yield from the frozen assets.

 

Stablecoin issuer Tether has invested $20 million in Latin American fintech company Ualá. The funding is part of Ualá's recently completed Series F round, led by Allianz X, which raised $197 million and valued the company at $3.2 billion.

 

According to a press release, the funds will be used to accelerate Ualá's growth and expand its financial ecosystem across Latin America. Ualá currently serves more than 11 million customers and plans to expand into additional Latin American countries beyond Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia, where it already operates under full banking licenses.

 

Explaining the rationale behind the investment, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said, "Ualá has built one of the most ambitious and widely used digital financial platforms in Latin America."

 

"Its growth reflects the enormous demand across the region for financial services that are more accessible, efficient, and designed around the needs of consumers. We are pleased to support the Ualá team as they continue investing in technology and expanding their reach."

 

Tether's investment in Ualá comes shortly after it led Neura Robotics' Series C funding round, which reportedly raised $1.4 billion, making it the largest funding round Tether has participated in so far this year.

About Ualá

 

Headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Ualá offers a mobile-friendly financial ecosystem designed to promote financial inclusion across Latin America. Its user-friendly app allows customers to make debit and credit card payments, send peer-to-peer transfers, access loans and credit, invest, and perform a range of other financial services.

 

Since its launch, Ualá has raised more than $1.1 billion across several funding rounds. It has also grown to serve about 11 million users, with more than 20% of Argentina's adult population, or about 7 million people, using the platform.

 

 

Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, has announced plans to shut down its Alloy platform, along with the platform’s main product, Alloy Tether (aUSDT).

 

According to Tether, the decision was based on a review of user activity levels, market demand, and the company’s broader priorities, with the team planning to focus its resources on areas where it sees stronger user demand, deeper liquidity, and longer-term market opportunity.

 

The wind-down will take place in phases, with Tether disabling both aUSDT minting and the opening of new positions on the Alloy platform. Users will, however, be able to continue redeeming their aUSDT and withdrawing their Tether Gold (XAUT) collateral from the Alloy platform for the next three months, until September 17, 2026.

 

This is not the first time Tether has shut down one of its products. In 2024, the stablecoin issuer discontinued its euro-pegged stablecoin, Euro Tether (EURT), citing low demand. In February of this year, it discontinued issuing its yuan-pegged stablecoin, Chinese Yuan Tether (CNHT), due to low demand and usage.

 

About Alloy 

Alloy by Tether is an open platform launched by Tether that allows users to create Tethered assets, a category of digital assets designed to track the price of referenced assets such as the United States dollar, using over-collateralized assets like Tether Gold (XAUT).

 

 

Stablecoin issuer Tether has announced its role as the lead investor in Neura Robotics’ recent Series C funding round. The funding round, which raised an estimated $1.4 billion, included Qualcomm, Amazon, and NVIDIA among other investors.

 

 

By investing in Neura Robotics, Tether is extending its influence beyond the digital asset industry, enabling it to deploy some of its core technologies into the humanoid robotics ecosystem. The partnership also enables the integration of Tether’s Wallet Development Kit and Tether’s self-custody wallets into the Neura Robotics system.

 

Through this integration, Tether provides a foundation that enables Neura Robotics to develop robotic systems that earn micropayments for tasks, transact with other robotic systems, and autonomously facilitate transactions and receive payments between machines without human intervention.

 

As part of its partnership, Neura Robotics will collaborate on testing, improving, and deploying Tether’s QuantumVerse Automatic Computer, known as QVAC, into its Neuraverse ecosystem. QVAC is Tether’s open-source, decentralized artificial intelligence platform that enables users to run and fine-tune large language models directly on their devices without relying on cloud servers.

 

“As robotics moves beyond scripted automation and into true autonomy, the infrastructure behind it must evolve as well,” said Paolo Ardoino, chief executive officer of Tether.

 

“Autonomous machines need the ability to process information locally, make decisions, and transact without relying on centralized intermediaries. QVAC brings that edge-first intelligence to the platform while WDK handles the secure financial layer. Together, they enable machines to execute tasks, account for outcomes, and operate independently. NEURA Robotics shares that vision, and this investment reflects our confidence in what autonomous robotics can become.”

 

About Neura Robotics 

NEURA Robotics is a German-based high technology company that positions itself as a pioneer in cognitive robotics and Physical Artificial Intelligence. It develops artificially intelligent machines that can perceive (see, hear, feel), learn, adapt, and collaborate safely with humans.

 

So far, the company has developed some cognitive humanoid robots, including MAiRA, MiPA, and 4NE1. It has also developed Neuraverse, an open ecosystem and platform that enables robots to share skills, continuously learn, and expand their capabilities.

 

 

Speaking at the 2026 Reagan National Economic Forum in Simi Valley, California, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow that the United States has seized roughly $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency from entities linked to Iran's military since conflict broke out in February. 

 

"We just outright grabbed the wallets," Bessent said. "Some of them may be typing in right now, and they might not have realized that their wallet had been grabbed."

 

Operation Economic Fury

The seizures Bessent referenced didn't happen overnight. They are the product of a campaign called Operation Economic Fury, a Treasury-led financial pressure initiative that kicked off around March 2025 under the Trump administration's direction. The goal, broadly, has been to cut off Iran's ability to move money internationally by targeting its revenue streams, weapons funding infrastructure, and sanctions evasion networks.

 

Before this campaign intensified, Iran had reportedly been routing $400 million to $500 million per month through crypto, primarily USDT on the Tron blockchain, to fund oil sales and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps operations.  It's a shadow banking pipeline built on a stablecoin that, for various reasons, became the preferred dollar substitute in sanctioned economies around the world.

 

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control has since sanctioned more than 1,000 Iran-linked entities and wallet addresses. It has also gotten some notable help from the private sector.

 

Tether as a Sanctions Tool

On April 24, 2026, Tether froze $344 million in USDT across two Tron blockchain addresses tied to Iran's IRGC and the Central Bank of Iran. One wallet held approximately $213 million; the other, $131 million. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis had flagged the addresses based on on-chain patterns consistent with known Iranian military wallets, and the freeze was coordinated directly with U.S. law enforcement and updated OFAC designations published the same day.

 

USDT circulates heavily on Tron precisely because it became a preferred rail for cross-border transfers in regions where traditional dollar-based banking is unavailable or restricted. By working with Tether to freeze those wallets, the Treasury effectively turned the world's largest stablecoin into a live sanctions enforcement mechanism. That's a significant shift in how financial pressure campaigns work in the digital asset era.

 

The implications go beyond Iran. Tether's cooperation confirms, in practice, that USDT is not a neutral financial instrument. It is subject to the same policy levers as the dollar-based correspondent banking system it was often pitched as an alternative to.

 

Bitcoin, Hormuz, and the Limits of "Untraceable" Crypto

The IRGC's crypto ambitions have not been limited to stablecoins. In April, the Financial Times reported that Iran was planning to require oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz to pay transit fees in Bitcoin. An Iranian official quoted at the time said the fees "can't be traced or confiscated due to sanctions." That quote aged poorly.

 

This month, Iran's state-affiliated Fars news agency reported that the IRGC promoted a Bitcoin-settled maritime insurance platform called Hormuz Safe. The scheme is a direct response to the ongoing blockade of the waterway, through which roughly 20% of the world's oil flows. With oil revenues choked and the regime under mounting financial pressure, digital assets have become one of the few remaining channels to keep funds moving.

 

Bessent did not directly link the $1 billion in seizures to the Bitcoin toll scheme. He also did not confirm whether Bitcoin itself was among the seized assets. Those details remain unspecified. What he did confirm is that the campaign is ongoing, that the seizures are substantial, and that some of those holding the funds may still be unaware.

 

Legal Fallout and Frozen Funds

The frozen Tether tranche is already the subject of a legal battle. A group of American terrorism victims, families connected to a 1997 Hamas bombing in Jerusalem, filed a motion in Manhattan federal court in mid-May seeking to have the $344 million transferred directly to their attorneys. Their unpaid court judgments against Iran total more than $2.4 billion across multiple terrorism-related cases. The plaintiffs served restraining notices on Tether just three days after the original freeze.

 

It is a legally complex situation. Tether froze the wallets by blacklisting the addresses at the smart contract level. Whether those funds can be redirected to private plaintiffs rather than held by the government is an open question, and one that federal courts will likely spend considerable time untangling.

 

Where This Leaves Iran, and Crypto

Bessent's comments Friday came as negotiations over a potential ceasefire deal were apparently inching forward. Reports citing Axios indicated that negotiators had reached a preliminary agreement pending Trump's approval. Whether that changes the pace of seizures is unclear.

 

What is clear is that Iran's crypto holdings are larger than the seized amount. Estimates put total Iranian digital asset holdings at roughly $7.7 billion, with about half attributed to the IRGC. The billion seized so far is meaningful pressure but not a knockout blow.

 

For the broader crypto market, the episode lands as a reminder that the "permissionless" framing of digital assets has always had limits. When the asset is a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by a centralized company, and that company cooperates with the U.S. Treasury, the network rails may be decentralized but the kill switch is not. That reality is going to shape how governments, firms, and bad actors all think about crypto infrastructure for years to come.