Tether freezes $4.5 million as Mercado Bitcoin hacker holds $46 million in crypto

Tether has frozen more than $4.5 million in USDT linked to a security breach at Brazilian crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed the freeze on Nov. 2, saying the stablecoin issuer blocked more than 4.5 million USDT linked to the incident. Notably, Tether is a major investor in the exchange. The stablecoin issuer announced a $20 million strategic investment in Mercado Bitcoin in July to support its expansion into tokenization, payments, and other digital financial services. Meanwhile, on-chain analyst Specter reported that coordinated efforts involving security researchers and stablecoin issuers had expanded the immobilized assets to more than $9 million across nine digital assets, including USDC, PAXG, RLUSD, and others.

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