The Tether freeze, confirmed by Bitquery, is important because stablecoin issuers can block tokens linked to crime, unlike bitcoin or ether. Bitquery also said roughly $81 million could still be traced onchain as of Oct. 11, while some funds had moved through Tornado Cash and Zcash.
Tether did not immediately respond to a CoinDesk request for comment on the freeze.
Ledger’s effort to characterize the incident as confined to CryptoBilis has drawn pushback because the reseller was listed as authorized on Ledger’s website. “It’s not a CryptoBilis incident, it’s a Ledger incident,” X user MyCryptoParadise wrote. “At least take ownership of this mess.”
The episode is distinct from an April phishing campaign involving a fake Ledger Live app on Apple’s App Store, which drained at least $9.5 million after users entered their recovery phrases. This time, the attacker appears to have obtained the keys needed to directly empty hundreds of wallets.
Ledger advised CryptoBilis customers not to set up unused devices. Those who have already used one should move assets to a new device with a newly generated recovery phrase, it said.
