An equivalent of $60.3 billion, or almost 55% of Tether’s (USDT) market value, was issued by its issuer between 2014 and October 2021 at the request of market makers Cumberland Global and the Sam Bankman-Fried-connected Alameda Research. Such calculations привели analysts from Protos.
The latter acquired tokens worth $36.7 billion, or 37% of USDT in circulation, with 86% of that amount — in the last 12 months. Cumberland Global, a subsidiary of one of the world’s largest traders DRW Holdings, converted $23.7 billion into Tether.
Among other major participants in USDT distribution were market makers linked to Binance, as well as to Bitfinex: iFinex, Nexo, Heka, Jump Crypto, DelChain, Blockchain Access, Three Arrows.
According to Protos, 87% of Alameda’s tokens were sent to the sister cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX. In total, nearly $4 billion went to Binance, Huobi, OKEx, with the remaining $705 million sent to addresses not linked to trading platforms.
Over the past year, Tether Limited, on behalf of Cumberland Global, issued tokens worth $17.6 billion (74% of the total for the period). 80% of all USDT the firm transferred to Binance, with the rest to other Bitcoin exchanges.
In October, CFTC fined Tether $41 million for “false or misleading statements” about full backing of the USDT stablecoin.
Subsequently, research firm Hindenburg Research offered a reward of $1 million for disclosure of previously unknown information about Tether’s reserves.
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