As the trial of FTX co-founder <-bsp-person state=”{“_id”:”0000018b-80dc-db85-afab-aedc24200000″,”_type”:”00000160-6f41-dae1-adf0-6ff519590003″}”>Sam Bankman-Fried-bsp-person> unfolds, the relationship between his exchange’s trading outfit Alameda Research and stablecoin issuer <-bsp-bb-link state=”{“bbHref”:”bbg://securities/2213302D%20VI%20Equity”,”_id”:”0000018b-80dc-db85-afab-aedc24200001″,”_type”:”0000016b-944a-dc2b-ab6b-d57ba1cc0000″}”>Tether-bsp-bb-link> is under the microscope of crypto sleuths.
Alameda was Tether’s largest non-exchange customer between 2020 and 2022, with blockchain data showing it received almost $40 billion in transfers of its stablecoin USDT directly from the company — equal to roughly 20% of all USDT tokens ever issued.
The vast amount has raised questions about where Alameda got the money to fund the issuance of the stablecoin, which is typically used as a dollar proxy and is the world’s …