The issuer of the largest stablecoin by capitalization, Tether (USDT), reported an attempt to extort 500 BTC (~ $ 23 million at the time of writing).
Today we also received a ransom demand for 500 BTC to be sent to bc1qa9f60pved3w3w0p7snpxlnh5t4uj95vxn797a7. The sender said that, unless they receive the BTC by tomorrow, they will leak documents to the public in an effort to “harm the bitcoin ecosystem.” We are not paying. 2/5
— Tether (@Tether_to) February 28, 2021
Tether said that an unknown person threatened to publish documents that could “harm the Bitcoin ecosystem.”
“We do not pay,” the message says.
The company representatives also added that a fake correspondence appeared on the network between their employee and the Deltec bank, which holds Tether’s assets. The content of the letters calls into question the full provision of stablecoins with reserves.
They confirm 1) being backed with crypto and 2) they try to fool regulators about that fact (2/7) pic.twitter.com/DhjTXq81x6
– RiskIndemnity Ruiz⏳ (@RiskIndemnity) February 28, 2021
“We have reported fake messages and ransom requests to law enforcement,” Tether said.
In January 2021, Bahamas-based Deltec announced that the stablecoin was fully backed by fiat reserves.
At the time of writing, USDT has a market cap of $ 35.2 billion, according to CoinGecko. According to this indicator, the asset is inferior to Cardano, Ethereum and Bitcoin.
We will remind, the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex and Tether will pay $ 18.5 million to the state of New York in the case of the company’s financial transactions related to the loss of $ 850 million.
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