Tether has faced criticism as it has frozen all USDT funds linked with with KuCoin hack. But Tether CTO defends the company move and says that Tether has “duties users, regulators, and law enforcement.”
On September 25, prominent cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin became the victim of a hacking attack in which $150 million in cryptocurrency were stolen. After the hack, Tether and Bitfinex exchange took an immediate action. According to Tether CTO, Paolo Ardoino Tether froze $20 million USDT on the Ethereum address while Bitfinex froze $13 million USDT on the EOS address. In another Twitter post, he reported another $1 million USDT has been frozen on Tron by Tether “as part of the KuCoin hack.”
CTO Defends Tether’s move of Freezing Funds
But after this, a Twitter user thanked Bitfinex for the initiative but called it “a slippery slope.” He said,”So I join everyone in thanking @paoloardoino and @bitfinex- but I issue them a warning. It’s a slippery slope. I hope you can dodge the laser beams.” In a response, Ardoino replied that “Tether USDt is a centralized stablecoin as others. We have duties towards users, regulators, and law enforcement. We have anyway strict rules and parameters for action. We don’t slip outside those.”
Further, Ardoino explained in a tweet that Tether can freeze funds only in two conditions. First, it can freeze on a regulator or law enforcement request. Second, it can perform the operation if “funds are sent to unrecoverable addresses.”
Cooperation among Crypto Exchanges
After KuCoin’s hack, we have seen outstanding cooperation among crypto companies. Most of the exchanges offer assistance in the probing of stolen funds. KuCoin informed crypto members that it is working with other exchanges in tracing funds. The list of exchanges includes Huobi, Bybit, Binance, OKEx, Crypto.com, BitMax, Upbit, Gate, BitZ, Bibox, MXC, BigONE, LBank, Bingbon, CoinW, BKEX, Bibo, Hoo, HBTC, Renrenbit, Max/Maicoin, and Bitrue.
Binance CEO CZ offered his sympathetic sentiments for KuCoin and offered assistance in the tracking of stolen funds. Tron founder Justin Sun said,” We sympathize w/ all users & @kucoincom team, we hope they can recover their funds soon. @TRONSCAN_ORG will label the hacker’s address so that all exchange partners are made aware. @Poloniex are on high alert in case the stolen funds are transferred to Poloniex.”