Approximately $91.3 billion in USDT on the TRON network is managed by a contract that can be controlled if two signature keys are compromised, according to CoinDesk, citing an assessment by Hacken.
About half of the stablecoin’s market supply is tied to a contract without built-in delay, cancellation window, or reliable rollback mechanism, experts noted.
This does not concern user wallets. The risk is associated with an administrative multisig that manages the USDT contract itself. It allows for token issuance, address freezing, and contract ownership reassignment.
Hacken smart contract auditor Seher Saylik stated that if two keys are compromised, an attacker could change the owner to a controlled address, depriving Tether of management access. In such a scenario, the attacker could also issue new USDT, halt or resume transfers, impose fees, and alter other administrative parameters.
Hacken emphasized that no signs of key compromise or incidents have been detected. The company also noted that Tether uses the same six keys across Ethereum, Avalanche, and Celo, meaning that a compromise in one network could potentially affect other stablecoin deployments.
Additionally, auditors pointed out that USDT smart contracts lack automatic reserve checks and issuance limits: if signatories approve a transaction, the contract can create any amount of tokens without on-chain bank deposit confirmation.
Meanwhile, Bluechip upgraded Tether’s corporate rating from D to C. The basis was an audit by KPMG US, which found that Tether International’s reserves exceeded liabilities by $6.8 billion as of December 31, 2025. This is the first assessment using the SMIDGE methodology, which combines reserve analysis, corporate governance, and technical risks with Hacken’s participation. USDT’s cybersecurity rating was 3.3 out of 10.
Hacken has not yet completed a comparable assessment of USDC, so the B+ rating from Bluechip for this stablecoin is not considered a direct technical comparison with USDT.
Earlier, the Bank for International Settlements stated that stablecoins do not provide key properties of money and do not appear to be a reliable means of payment on an economy-wide scale.
