The issuer of the USDT stablecoin, Tether claims to have allegedly received a ransom note of asking for 500 BTC, currently valued at about $22 million, to avoid documents be made public that can harm the bitcoin environment. However, Tether revealed the extortion attempt in a tweet on Sunday.
Tether tweeted, while the organization believes that it is a pretty sad attempt at a shakedown, we are taking this seriously. The network has reported the forged communications and the related ransom demand to law enforcement. Like always, it will completely support the law enforcement during the investigation of this extortion attempt.
Tether settled with the New York Attorney General (NYAG) regarding a multi-year investigation relating to an $850 million loan made to its sister trade Bitfinex, on Tuesday. However, the companies didn’t accept the wrongdoings as a part of the settlement.
The Tether serves a significant, however sometimes dubious, role in the digital currency market. Its USDT token, fixed to the U.S. dollar, is utilized by traders, trades, and all through the crypto economy giving it what some call foundational significance.
In the previous year, harmonizing with the fleeting ascent in the cost of bitcoin, Tether’s market capitalization detonated to more than $34 billion from $2 billion. Tether has claimed that each USDT issued is sponsored by dollars or dollar-counterparts held in a bank account, which has become a state of dispute among academics, cryptocurrency skeptics, and the New York Attorney General (NYAG).
Lately, records have flowed online purportedly showing an email string between a Tether worker and delegates for Deltec, the Bahamanian bank said to hold USDT reserves, that reignite inquiries concerning USDT’s support. However, the messages have not been verified. Tether denied their authenticity in a similar Twitter thread declaring the extortion attempt.
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