Tether · North Korea · FBI · CryptoSlate
Tether freezes $1.5 billion in 30 minutes after Binance hack, but $729 million escapes
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Tether froze more than $1.5 billion in stolen USDT within 30 minutes of Binance's Oct. 29 hack, highlighting stablecoins' ability to disrupt cryptocurrency theft.
Key facts
- Tether froze more than $1.5 billion in stolen USDT within 30 minutes of Binance's Oct. 29 hack, highlighting stablecoins' ability to disrupt cryptocurrency theft
- One attacker-controlled wallet also deposited $60 million in USDT into decentralized lending protocol Aave shortly before being frozen, allowing the hackers to borrow approximately $45 million in ETH
- Bitquery estimated that approximately $1.76 billion in stolen USDT was ultimately frozen, representing about 71% of the amount taken
- Meanwhile, Bitquery estimated that the attackers still controlled approximately $3 billion in cryptocurrency as of Nov
Summary
01 Tether froze more than $1.5 billion in stolen USDT within 30 minutes of Binance's Oct. 29 hack, blocking funds linked to North Korean hackers. 02 The rapid intervention highlights stablecoins' ability to combat illicit finance, with Tether reporting more than $7 billion in historical freezes. 03 Bitquery found that $729 million escaped the freezes, while the recovery timeline and eventual recipients of the immobilized funds remain unknown. In a Nov. 2 statement, the world's largest stablecoin issuer said its intervention prevented the immobilized funds from being transferred or laundered by attackers linked to North Korea.