Chad Barraford, technical co-founder of THORChain, has publicly accused Tether of blacklisting the network's USDT vaults. He said the stablecoin issuer gave no explanation for the move. Cointelegraph reported the claim on Oct 9, 2026.
Barraford also said the freeze did not last. According to him, the vaults were unfrozen a few hours after they were blacklisted, again with no reason given.
Several things are not yet known. The report does not say how much USDT sat in the affected vaults, how long the freeze lasted in exact hours, or whether any users lost funds. It also does not include a response from Tether, so the account comes from one side only.
For someone already holding a perpetual position on Bitget, Bybit, MEXC or OKX, nothing changes directly. The report names none of these exchanges and describes no effect on funding rates, trading fees or order-book liquidity. The dispute is between Tether and THORChain over THORChain's own vaults, and the freeze has reportedly been lifted.
Source: cointelegraph — THORChain exec accuses Tether of temporarily freezing USDT vaults