Approximately 91.3 billion $USDT on the TRON network are managed by a contract, control over which can be obtained by compromising two signature keys, writes CoinDesk citing a Hacken assessment.
Roughly half of the stablecoin's market supply is tied to a contract without built-in delays, cancellation windows, or a reliable rollback mechanism, the experts noted.
This does not refer to user wallets. The risk is related to the administrative multi-signature that manages the $USDT contract itself. Through it, tokens can be issued, addresses can be frozen, and the contract owner can be reassigned.
Seher Saylik, smart contract auditor at Hacken, stated that after compromising two keys, an attacker could change the owner to a controlled address and deprive Tether of access to management. In such a scenario, they would also gain the ability to issue new $USDT, stop or resume transfers, introduce fees, and change other administrative parameters.
Hacken emphasized that it did not find signs of key compromise or an incident that has already occurred. The company also noted that Tether uses the same six keys on Ethereum, Avalanche, and Celo — meaning that compromising part of the infrastructure in one network could potentially affect other deployments of the stablecoin.
Separately, the auditors pointed out that the $USDT smart contracts lack automatic reserve checks and an issuance limit: if signers approve a transaction, the contract will create any volume of tokens without on-chain confirmation of a bank deposit.
Against this backdrop, Bluechip upgraded Tether's corporate rating from D to C. The basis was an audit by KPMG US: according to its results, Tether International's reserves as of December 31, 2025, exceeded liabilities by $6.8 billion. This is the first assessment using the SMIDGE methodology, which combines analysis of reserves, corporate governance, and technical risks with the participation of Hacken. The cybersecurity assessment for $USDT was 3.3 out of 10.
Hacken has not yet completed a comparable assessment for USDC, so experts do not consider Bluechip's B+ rating for this stablecoin to be a direct technical comparison with $USDT.
Recall that the Bank for International Settlements believes stablecoins do not provide the key properties of money and do not appear to be a reliable means of payment for the entire economy.
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