Tether, Circle Freeze $65M in Crypto Associated with Multichain

The recent reports says that the issuers of stable coins Circle and Tether have placed restrictions on over $65 million in assets linked to the probable Multichain theft after Multichain, formerly Anyswap, has ceased operations following an unclear transfer of cryptocurrency assets valued several million dollars on July 6.

Tether and Circle Took Immediate Actions

According to the Fantom Foundation, over $2.5 million of equity in Tether (USDT) was further seized from two addresses identified as “Multichain Suspicious Addresses” by Etherscan. According to Fantom protocol CEO Michael Kong, the movement of cash “does not appear to be a normal hack” as the funds that were transmitted to the suspected attacker’s wallets had not been moved. 

Three Accounts Frozen by Circle and Two by Tether

Furthermore, the Knowledge graph protocol 0xScope revealed that three accounts which got a minimum of $63.2 million in USD Coin (USDC) from Multichain were subsequently frozen. 

Based on estimations, approximately $125 million in cryptocurrencies were removed from several wallets, impacting the communities of Multichain, Dogechain, Moonriver, Kava, and Conflux. 

Multichain Users are Worried

Following inexplicable massive withdrawals via the Multichain MPC bridge, several users have expressed frustration that they are struggling to connect or withdraw funds from the network. The company warns users not to utilize “the Multichain bridging service now.” On July 7, a tweet without a restoration date stated: “The Multichain service stopped currently, and all bridge transactions will be stuck on the source chains. There is no confirmed resume time.”

Hacks and Thefts Remain an Issue for Crypto

After its top executives departed a few weeks ago, it has faced technical and operational issues. With multiple attacks documented in 2022, bridges like Multichain have become one of the systems prone to compromise and feed crypto hackers. 

Smart contract flaws, rug pulls, flash loan assaults, frauds, and private key breaches are the top five most frequent hacks. Back in May, Multichain promised to compensate users impacted by “force majeure” that made some cross-chain connections unusable. In addition, Multichain claimed that when connectivity returns, pending transactions will be automatically credited.