Media: Alameda Research and Cumberland Take the Lion’s Share of USDT Issuance

More than two-thirds of the total USDT stablecoin issued by Tether was purchased by two cryptocurrency firms — Alameda Research and Cumberland Global. According to the Protos portal, citing its own sources.

Alameda Research, Sam Bankman-Fried’s firm, acquired almost a third of all USDT. An even larger volume of the token was issued for the liquidity provider Cumberland Global. The firm belongs to the trading company DRW.

According to the issuer’s site, as of writing, 63.3 billion USDT are in circulation.

DRW is considered a major market participant. The Financial Times described the firm as “an important source of liquidity for the world’s leading futures exchanges.”

Cumberland was created by DRW in 2014 and, according to Protos, is the largest liquidity provider in the crypto industry thanks to Tether.

Alameda Research positions itself as a “multi-stage investment company in the field of cryptocurrency and financial technologies.” The firm is affiliated with Sam Bankman-Fried’s other venture—the Bitcoin exchange FTX.

Since its launch in 2018, Alameda Research sharply increased its USDT purchases, and the stablecoin supply grew exponentially, Protos notes.

Presumably, the company uses the majority of its USDT to provide liquidity to the markets in which it operates, including FTX.

Additionally, Alameda Research acts as a venture capitalist in the crypto industry, where funding projects in USDT is relatively easier than in fiat, according to Protos.

According to an audit report, as of July 30, 2021 the stablecoin was fully backed by the issuer’s reserves, but only 10% of those reserves consisted of cash and bank deposits.