Tether and Bitfinex named as the crypto firms behind Capstone, whose accounts US prosecutors froze
Tether and sister exchange Bitfinex are the two unnamed crypto firms at the center of a US forfeiture case against Capstone Ltd, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times. Federal prosecutors in California froze about $84.2 million in Capstones name, saying the payments group moved money without a license. A Wells Fargo line sent out $337 million, the complaint says The civil forfeiture complaint, filed July 15 in the Eastern District of California, names neither company. It only cites a crypto company, an affiliated exchange, and a bank in Dominica. Prosecutors say Capstones Wells Fargo business account, not counting Treasury purchases, disbursed $337 million between March and December 2025. The complaint alleges almost two-thirds of that money seems to have gone to hundreds of recipients, mostly outside the US, on behalf of the two crypto firms. Court records show the seized property consists of five pieces. The biggest is $79.11 million in a Wells Fargo Securities account, followed by $2.06 million at JPMorgan Chase, $1.86 million at Wells Fargo Bank, and about 1.18 million USDT shared between two wallets. Property listed in US v. Approx. $79,109,828.17 seized from Wells Fargo, E.D. Cal. 2 26-cv-02476, via GovInfo. Capstone presented itself to banks as an IT services company,









