Hacken Report Reveals Half of USDT Controlled by Two Signature Keys

Blockchain security company Hacken has released an assessment report indicating that approximately half of the circulating USDT (about $91.3 billion on the Tron network) is controlled by a 2-of-3 multi-signature contract, which lacks built-in delays, cancellation processes, or reliable revocation mechanisms. An attacker only needs to compromise two signature keys to change contract ownership, mint tokens, freeze addresses, clear frozen balances, or set transfer fees without accessing any user wallets. Hacken also discovered that Tether reuses the same set of six signature keys across three chains: Ethereum, Avalanche, and Celo, posing a risk of cross-chain spread. Stablecoin rating agency Bluechip upgraded Tether's company rating from D to C, citing KPMG's audit showing that as of December 31, 2025, Tether's reserves exceed liabilities by $6.8 billion. Hacken assigned a cybersecurity score of only 3.3 out of 10 to USDT, noting that the USDT smart contract lacks automatic reserve proof checks and has no token minting cap; once signers authorize a transaction, the contract can mint an unlimited number of tokens without bank reserve proof. Hacken stated that it has not yet completed a comparable assessment of Circle's USDC, and Bluechip's previous B+ rating for USDC was based on an outdated methodology and cannot be directly used for technical comparison.

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