Tether Freezes $10 Million in USDT Tied to Ledger Distributor Theft

Tether froze $10 million in USDT linked to a theft involving devices sold by authorized Ledger distributor CryptoBilis, with total affected assets estimated at about $93.2 million.

The assets were taken from 315 wallets across six blockchains and consisted mainly of Tether's USDT and TRX. About $81 million remained traceable on-chain as of Oct. 11, while some funds had moved through Tornado Cash and Zcash.

Ledger said all confirmed cases involved devices sold by CryptoBilis and that its investigation is ongoing. The company advised customers who have not activated CryptoBilis devices not to do so. Customers who already used the devices were told to transfer their assets to a new device using a new recovery phrase.

A separate estimate put the total loss at about $94.5 million, but the figures have not been confirmed by Ledger. The incident highlights the risks of compromised hardware distribution channels, where devices can be linked to assets across multiple blockchain networks.