Cryptocurrency firm Tether claims $30 million loss after theft

The company behind the cryptocurrency Tether claims that an unknown attacker has stolen an amount of approximately 30 million dollars. It has released an update to its software. The claim is raising questions in the bitcoin community.

In a warning, Tether wrote that the move of about 30 million of its currency, called usdt, was the result of a “malicious action by a remote attacker” and that the transfer took place to an “unauthorized bitcoin address.” The update to its Omni Core software should ensure that the attacker cannot transfer the currency from that address to other addresses, the Tether team reports. For example, the stolen funds must be kept out of circulation. It would be a ‘temporary hard fork’.

Coindesk reports that the announcement comes amid discussion surrounding Tether. For example, it would be unclear what ties there are with the exchange Bitfinex and the site speaks of accusations of market manipulation and fraud. Bitfinex said in August of last year that it had been the victim of a theft in which a total of 119,756 bitcoin was stolen. The current announcement on Tether leads to skeptical reactions, including on Reddit.

Tether is a cryptocurrency that claims to be stable because it is linked to traditional currencies such as the dollar or the euro. Therefore, the value of 1 Tether would correspond to that of 1 dollar.