The developers found a double-spending vulnerability in Tether’s code. Holders of coins can make transfers without debiting funds from the account, representatives of the Chinese company SlowMist reported in Twitter.
Why it is important
- When exchanges process deposits in USDT, the system may incorrectly verify the transaction due to a vulnerability. The system considers the transaction successful when the funds were not debited from the sender's account.
- This will allow the client to be credited for tokens without actually having sent them.
According to the SlowMist, such an attack has already taken place. Faster than others, the OKEx reacted to this information. Representatives of one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world said they conducted a series of inspections and confirmed that their system is “not exposed to the vulnerability.” The founder of the Omni, the platform on which USDT was created, explained that explained that exchanges incorrectly integrated the USDT.
It is worth noting that Teter causes a lot of questions from the crypto community. The company has issued an additional 250 million of their tokenized US dollars - USDT. Questions have arised if the company has backed up the latest emission with fiat reserves.
Tether earlier revealed results of an audit conducted by a law firm. The community criticized the firm for not conducting a proper audit to which Tether replied that no conventional method can be used to evaluate a cryptocurrency. The document also fails to mention if at any point the tokens were not fully backed by the dollar.
By Ekaterina Ulyanova