Tether, known for being the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, alleges that it has received a ransom note that asks for 500 BTC ($22 million) or documents that could “hard the bitcoin ecosystem” will be released. The announcement by Tether came via Twitter.
“While we believe this is a pretty sad attempt at a shakedown, we take it seriously. We have reported the forged communications and the associated ransom demand to law enforcement. As always, we will fully support law enforcement in an investigation of this extortion scheme,” tweeted Tether.
Tether’s role in the crypto market is important, even if, at times, controversial. Its USDT token, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar, has widespread use among traders, exchanges, etc., which gives it systemic importance.
In 2020, alongside the groundbreaking increase of Bitcoin’s price, Tether’s market cap grew from $2 billion to $34 billion. Tether declared that every USDT issued by it is backed by dollars or dollar-equivalents that are placed in a bank account. This has gone on to be a point of contention between academic, crypto-skeptics, and even the New York Attorney General.
These weeks, documents have been posted online which allegedly show an email thread between a Tether employee and representatives of Deltec, a Bahamanian bank that is said to hold the reserves of USDT, which reignited the suspicions regarding Tether’s backing.
The emails have yet to be verified, and the company has denied they are legitimate.