Tether Freezes $4.5M USDT as Mercado Bitcoin Probes $40M Breach

Tether froze more than 4.5 million USDT tied to a November 2 security breach at Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin exchange. The move followed reports of over $40 million in suspicious transfers, while the platform paused deposits and withdrawals during its investigation. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed the freeze in an X post sharing the exchange’s security notice. His statement did not identify the affected wallets. It also offered no evidence that the blocked tokens had returned to Mercado Bitcoin. The blockchain security company Hypernative detected unusual token transfers on various networks, as reported by the Brazilian publication BitNotícias.

Source: TronWeekly