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Scammers demand 500 BTC ransom from Tether

The scammers are demanding 500 BTC (about $ 23 million) from Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, for not disclosing documents that could “harm the Bitcoin ecosystem.”

how reported representatives of the company on the social network Twitter, Tether received a threat to publish documents that could harm the infrastructure of Bitcoin if the stablecoin issuer does not pay a ransom of 500 BTC. The company refused to pay the ransom.

“While we believe this is a rather baseless attempt at blackmail, we take it seriously. We informed law enforcement about the threats and the corresponding ransom demand. As always, we will fully support law enforcement agencies in investigating this extortion scheme, ”the company said in a statement.

Tether plays an important, albeit controversial, role in the cryptocurrency market. The USDT stablecoin, pegged to the US dollar, is used by traders, exchanges and other infrastructure companies and is of systemic importance.

Over the past year, Tether’s market capitalization has grown from $ 2 billion to over $ 34 billion. Tether claims that every USDT issued is backed by dollars or dollar equivalents held in a bank account, which has been the subject of controversy among industry participants and has been repeatedly questioned.

In recent days, there have appeared on the Internet documentsallegedly showing an email correspondence between a Tether employee and representatives of Deltec, the Bahamian bank that holds USDT reserves. The correspondence raised questions again about the validity of the Tether collateral. However, the authenticity of the emails has not been verified, and Tether denied their legitimacy.

Last week, the New York Attorney’s Office (NYAG) settled a lawsuit with Bitfinex and Tether. The firms will pay $ 18.5 million in fines and will be required to submit quarterly reports on their activities over two years. However, New York Attorney General Letitia James said:

“Bitfinex and Tether recklessly and illegally covered huge financial losses in order to maintain their scheme and protect their financial results. Tether’s claims that its virtual currency has always been fully backed by US dollars were false. ”

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