Tether sued over $42M in frozen coins, 6,600 students get crypto loans: Asia Express

THAILAND Thai businessmen sue Tether for freezing $42M Two Thai businessmen have sued stablecoin issuer Tether in a New York district court, claiming it illegally froze $42.4 million in Tether USDt (USDT) in October, as part of a broader case tied to a pig butchering scheme. The plaintiffs claimed that Tether illegally froze the $42 million without a warrant in October 2025, following an informal request from US Homeland Security Investigations. Authorities in the Eastern District of North Carolina only issued a seizure warrant for the funds later in February 2026. The warrant directed the burn and reissuance of the tokens to a government wallet. The plaintiffs vigorously deny any involvement in the investment scam, and their lawyer Mark Beckett said “this situation demonstrates that the government can seize stablecoins used in legitimate business transactions on the basis of inaccurate information.” Thailand adopts crypto Travel Rule with self-custodial wallet checks Thailand is tightening oversight of crypto transfers, including transactions involving self-custodial wallets, as it moves to align with global Anti-Money Laundering (AML) standards. Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued new Travel Rule regulations requiring digital asset operators to collect information about parties involved in crypto transfer. The rules will take effect on Feb. 27, 2027. Thailand SEC proposes retail access to regulated overseas crypto derivatives Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed allowing intermediaries to facilitate retail access to certain digital asset derivatives traded overseas. Under the proposal, eligible products would need to resemble crypto derivatives traded in Thailand, including their underlying assets, maturity, leverage and settlement methods. The products must also trade on an exchange that uses a central counterparty for clearing and is overseen by a regulator belonging to specified international regulatory or exchange groups. The consultation remains open until Sept. 30. ASIA Pencil Finance completes $1M onchain lending cycle for 6.6K students in Southeast Asia Pencil Finance has completed a $1 million onchain student loan cycle, offering financing to 6,600 students in Southeast Asia who were underserved by traditional lenders. Of the 6,600 students across 118 schools and universities in Southeast Asia, about 1,050 received direct funding. Pencil said the loans were designed for students underserved by traditional lenders, with 50% female borrowers and 93% stemming from lower-income households. Pencil Finance claims this is the first-ever fully onchain lending cycle financing student loans transparently recorded on the blockchain network. Asia crypto custody deals from Ripple and Coincheck Ripple has partnered with digital asset infrastructure company SettleMint to offer financial institutions solutions for custody, issuance and management of tokenized assets across their full lifecycle. Digital asset service provider Coincheck Group has also partnered with wallet infrastructure provider DFNS to build digital asset wallet technology and custody services in Japan.