Tether Claims $30 Million in US Dollar Token Stolen By Attacker

[XECTA]

Tether, the company behind a dollar-pegged cryptocurrency widely used in the market's exchange trade, is claiming that its systems have been hacked and that $30 million worth of its tokens have been stolen.

In a post on the project's website (which has since been removed), Tether blamed a "malicious action by an external attacker" for the theft of $30,950,010 USDT yesterday. Originally launched as Realcoin and later rebranded, Tether aims to serve as a proxy for the US dollar that can be sent between exchanges including Bitfinex, Poloniex and other markets.

In response, Tether said it would move swiftly to ensure these exchanges do not trade or otherwise introduce the stolen funds back into the cryptocurrency economy.

The company wrote:

    "$30,950,010 USDT was removed from the Tether Treasury wallet on Nov. 19, 2017 and sent to an unauthorized bitcoin address. As Tether is the issuer of the USDT managed asset, we will not redeem any of the stolen tokens, and we are in the process of attempting token recovery to prevent them from entering the broader ecosystem."

Notably, the company said that it is releasing a new version of the Omni Core software client (which Tether runs on top of) in a bid to effectively lock up the tokens it alleges were stolen. Should nodes in the network adopt the software, it would effectively blacklist the stolen address, enacting an emergency fork to contain the funds.

Representatives from the Omni Core software project said they would seek to release new software in the coming days that will allow Tether to retrieve the stolen tokens.

Observers online spotted the move earlier today, stoking speculation about the nature of the freeze.

"The tether.to back-end wallet service has been temporarily suspended. A thorough investigation on the cause of the attack is being undertaken to prevent similar actions in the future," Tether wrote.

The announcement comes amid a period of growing discussion – and controversy – around Tether.

Under scrutiny has been the unclear relationship between Tether and the troubled British Virgin Islands-based bitcoin exchange Bitfinex – and long-standing allegations the exchange has been using the asset to engage in fraud and market manipulation. Complicating matters is that the two companies are said to share a common ownership, though details remain murky as to the exact nature of the connection.

As such, today’s hack claims are likely to further drive the controversy, which began following Bifinex's hack last August, in which it lost more than $70 million in customer funds.

Following the news, other exchanges that offer order-book trading on Tether have taken steps to freeze trading, with China-based Huobi and OKCoin announcing the move shortly after the pos

[LoopX_Support]

what does this mean for Bitfinex? anybody has any insight there for me . Thank you

[Oliver A]

Tether, the company behind a dollar-pegged cryptocurrency widely used in the market's exchange trade, is claiming that its systems have been hacked and that $30 million worth of its tokens have been stolen.

In a post on the project's website (which has since been removed), Tether blamed a "malicious action by an external attacker" for the theft of $30,950,010 USDT yesterday. Originally launched as Realcoin and later rebranded, Tether aims to serve as a proxy for the US dollar that can be sent between exchanges including Bitfinex, Poloniex and other markets.

In response, Tether said it would move swiftly to ensure these exchanges do not trade or otherwise introduce the stolen funds back into the cryptocurrency economy.

The company wrote:

    "$30,950,010 USDT was removed from the Tether Treasury wallet on Nov. 19, 2017 and sent to an unauthorized bitcoin address. As Tether is the issuer of the USDT managed asset, we will not redeem any of the stolen tokens, and we are in the process of attempting token recovery to prevent them from entering the broader ecosystem."

Notably, the company said that it is releasing a new version of the Omni Core software client (which Tether runs on top of) in a bid to effectively lock up the tokens it alleges were stolen. Should nodes in the network adopt the software, it would effectively blacklist the stolen address, enacting an emergency fork to contain the funds.

Representatives from the Omni Core software project said they would seek to release new software in the coming days that will allow Tether to retrieve the stolen tokens.

Observers online spotted the move earlier today, stoking speculation about the nature of the freeze.

"The tether.to back-end wallet service has been temporarily suspended. A thorough investigation on the cause of the attack is being undertaken to prevent similar actions in the future," Tether wrote.

The announcement comes amid a period of growing discussion – and controversy – around Tether.

Under scrutiny has been the unclear relationship between Tether and the troubled British Virgin Islands-based bitcoin exchange Bitfinex – and long-standing allegations the exchange has been using the asset to engage in fraud and market manipulation. Complicating matters is that the two companies are said to share a common ownership, though details remain murky as to the exact nature of the connection.

As such, today’s hack claims are likely to further drive the controversy, which began following Bifinex's hack last August, in which it lost more than $70 million in customer funds.

Following the news, other exchanges that offer order-book trading on Tether have taken steps to freeze trading, with China-based Huobi and OKCoin announcing the move shortly after the pos

LOL...They must pre plan first before introducing any of their services. 

[MiningSensei]

Yeah i saw it, obviously that they are saying that it is an "external attack" but we all know from where did it come, bitfinex are not just angels, they know what happened with those millions.
That is the real reason of why all the altcoins, including bitcoin, dropped a lot during the last few hours, but now they all are recovering.
And this forum was full of newbies saying that bitcoin was going to crash because it dropped five hundred dollars  now it is on the way to go to the top again..
Guys, this bubble with tether is going to explode soon, i dont know how they are managing it to still have less than a billion dollars in their total marketcap.

[sabrikks]

This kind of stuff will for sure hurt the crypto market, all i hear this days is hackers, scams, disapearing ICO's
 

[Aamir1]

Attackers are very active these days when the price of bitcoin is very high. They will try to exploit every exchange, every wallet or any other website having funds in them and if they succeed, this is what happens. Whoever does it for whatever his intentions are, this is surely hurting the community. We know they are not Bitcoins which are stolen, but they are still a part of the crypto world and if anything is harmed within a word we live, we get hurt too, and if it keeps happening, it will have a quite notable affect on the markets.

[jagdeepjd]

I think There's no money lost. Tether is not real money. It's an IOU of money. The actual backing fiat asset was not affected. By imposing a hard fork on the omni network, those 30mil USDT becomes effectively unusable and since Tether is not going to redeem it effectively nothing of value has been lost.

[litmus]

It looks like some centralization comes in handy sometimes; at least in this case being the only the issuer of the USDT managed asset, they get to rule their universe. I really don't think this was an inside job to steal from their community .

This extremely talented individual that did pull it off though,  isn't going to be getting anything for their efforts this time.

[RamBahadur.Gurung]

Something really fishy there. So all these tokens were being held in a single wallet? I smell an inside job here. Hopefully, the picture will be clear in the next few days.

[Dendy69]

There are a lot f reheasals about potential scam of bitfinex and tether. I personally don't believe that. They are too big and too professional in my view.

But if Bitfinex and tether are scam, it will be a great panic on the market. I would like to buy some crypto on low levels.

[Thirdspace]

when an altcoin getting hacked, fund stolen, flaw in architecture design
people will dump that altcoin fear of losing its value, which usually turn into real big price drop
but when this happen to USDT, how would it loses value if it is pegged 1:1 to US$?
or there exist rate for US$/USDT pair? so... should we stop using USDT now?

[Vivinthosh]

And how does she want to return them? Legislation of the countries now does not protect from theft of bitcoin. Can only be planted for hacking

[Colorblind]

Tether.to is down?

[s4mp1nt0]

oh, now i know the reason why some exchange was temporarily disable the withdrawal of ustd, amp and maid coins.
get ready for the massive dump of coins

[stompix]

This is beyond interesting:

"$30,950,010 USDT was removed from the Tether Treasury wallet on Nov. 19, 2017 and sent to an unauthorized bitcoin address. As Tether is the issuer of the USDT managed asset, we will not redeem any of the stolen tokens, and we are in the process of attempting token recovery to prevent them from entering the broader ecosystem."

Let's forget the "hack".
So this is a centralized scamcoin/token in which they can easily deny your tokens?
They can transform your assets into nothing just because....reasons?

Notably, the company said that it is releasing a new version of the Omni Core software client (which Tether runs on top of) in a bid to effectively lock up the tokens it alleges were stolen. Should nodes in the network adopt the software, it would effectively blacklist the stolen address, enacting an emergency fork to contain the funds.

So get ready for the next level of control.
Not done by the evil banks or government but by an organization nobody knows where is actually located and who runs it who is now in charge of millions pureed in by gullible ... u know what.

but when this happen to USDT, how would it loses value if it is pegged 1:1 to US$?
or there exist rate for US$/USDT pair? so... should we stop using USDT now?

Pegged by who?
By Winnie the Pooh and the Mad Hatter ?
Who is backing this rate? What reserves do they have?

[Jamie Oliver]

Today saw the article said that the usdt team to retrieve 30 milllion, they will perform a hard fork. For this point I think the team shameless, just as they add usdt.

[dhka]

That is a very massive amount of money, I hope they can stop the stolen coin from circulating

I personally like the concept of tether by providing a crypto version of USD
But how do we know if they really have same amount of USD reserved in their account? I dont know, I am not convinced enough, i this crypto world full of scam, no one knows who lies, who saying the truth

[GazorpPozorpec]

what does this mean for Bitfinex? anybody has any insight there for me . Thank you

It seems to me that this news may cause panic among users, and people will withdraw money from the exchanges that use the USDT.

[Thirdspace]

but when this happen to USDT, how would it loses value if it is pegged 1:1 to US$?
or there exist rate for US$/USDT pair? so... should we stop using USDT now?

Pegged by who?
By Winnie the Pooh and the Mad Hatter ?
Who is backing this rate? What reserves do they have?

it is on their FAQ page, many exchange and user supporters believe in it too
looking at how it is defined as tokens backed by real assets, they have rights to seize/freeze any account
the same thing will happen if you hold "marked US$ bill" that was involved in certain crime activities,
the marked US$ bill will be seized when spotted, banks will report you, govt will arrest and question you

pegged 1:1, excerpt from Official Tether FAQs

How does Tether work?
Tether Platform currencies are 100% backed by actual fiat currency assets in our reserve account. Tethers are redeemable and exchangeable pursuant to Tether Limited’s terms of service. The conversion rate is 1 tether USD₮ equals 1 USD.

How does Tether protect me from cryptocurrency volatility?
Because they are anchored or ‘tethered’ to real-world currencies.
Tethers are new assets that move across blockchain just as easily as other digital currencies. Tether currencies are not money, but are digital tokens formatted to work on blockchains. Tethers hold their value at 1:1 to the underlying assets.

How do I know my Tether is secure?
All tethers are pegged at one-to-one with matching fiat currency (e.g., 1 USD₮ = 1 USD) and are backed 100% by actual assets in our reserve account. As a fully transparent company, we publish a real-time record of all value held and transferred in and out of our reserve account.

[Colorblind]

but when this happen to USDT, how would it loses value if it is pegged 1:1 to US$?
or there exist rate for US$/USDT pair? so... should we stop using USDT now?

Pegged by who?
By Winnie the Pooh and the Mad Hatter ?
Who is backing this rate? What reserves do they have?

it is on their FAQ page, many exchange and user supporters believe in it too
looking at how it is defined as tokens backed by real assets, they have rights to seize/freeze any account
the same thing will happen if you hold "marked US$ bill" that was involved in certain crime activities,
the marked US$ bill will be seized when spotted, banks will report you, govt will arrest and question you

pegged 1:1, excerpt from Official Tether FAQs

How does Tether work?
Tether Platform currencies are 100% backed by actual fiat currency assets in our reserve account. Tethers are redeemable and exchangeable pursuant to Tether Limited’s terms of service. The conversion rate is 1 tether USD₮ equals 1 USD.

How does Tether protect me from cryptocurrency volatility?
Because they are anchored or ‘tethered’ to real-world currencies.
Tethers are new assets that move across blockchain just as easily as other digital currencies. Tether currencies are not money, but are digital tokens formatted to work on blockchains. Tethers hold their value at 1:1 to the underlying assets.

How do I know my Tether is secure?
All tethers are pegged at one-to-one with matching fiat currency (e.g., 1 USD₮ = 1 USD) and are backed 100% by actual assets in our reserve account. As a fully transparent company, we publish a real-time record of all value held and transferred in and out of our reserve account.

This is not the same. Government have my authority to take me to questioning, because I am the source of it's power. Citizens who's being detained usually given reasons for detention, and the rules of the game is always known. Individual can fight government even though it can be hard there are tons of examples where such battles were fought and won. I.e when you screwed by government you know where to stick your pitchfork.
Dealing with Tether is massively different. You can't call their bank and ask if they have those 300 millions they claim they have. Also you would be very naive if you think their reserve of 300 millions is a vault full of cash - it's not - those money are electronic vapor, invested in obligations and equity and god knows what else. On top of that Tether have NO legal obligations to redeem their tokens anywhere.

Basically I see Tether as great crypto conspiracy, mutually created by selected exchanges (bitfinex, bittrex, poloniex) in a (indeed successful) attempt to pump BTC. Look at what's going on on Bittrex+Bitfinex - almost 150 000 BTC daily volume and rising. But most of this volume is BTC/USDT trades - people use Tether to temporarily exit BTC then keep on trading without actually cashing out. New tethers being minted and immediately used to buy BTC. And while traders keep pumping BTC with monopoly money, exchanges quietly dump fat profits, draining most of the incoming fiat (the real fiat). And everyone is happy, because traders keep thinking TETHER is as good as USD so why bother converting it to actual USD?

It's all fun and games, while price is rising, but at some point some whale will decide to actually cash out. Think about massive market impact that will occur when someone will try to cash out 50-100 mln of tethers all at once. Slight delay of payment will tear down biggest exchanges, because people will want to sell tether, but nobody will want to buy them with BTC  (basically real USD price of BTC will drop 3-4 times and tether price of BTC will rise 100-200, because people will be glad to dump irredeemable tethers for BTC). That will be a showdown where hundreds of thousands lose everything, taking some big exchanges with them.

Or tether actually have 300 mln in their bank and everything I wrote is just FUD.