Report: Alameda and Cumberland Acquired Nearly 55% of USDT’s Total Supply

According to recent research published by the independent cryptocurrency outlet Protos, two companies have been responsible for buying two-thirds of Tether’s USDT total supply since its inception.

The organizations, Alameda Research and Cumberland Global, had so far been the recipients of at least $60.3 billion USDT out of the $108.5 billion of Tether’s outbound transfers between 2014 and October 31, 2021, the report said.

A majority of the volume, representing $49.2 billion worth of USDT (60% of Tether’s total supply), was acquired in 2020 alone, indicating the period when interests in cryptocurrencies surged tremendously.

However, the companies’ closest competitors in terms of receiving USDT from Tether’s treasuries, such as Binance, Bitfinex, Nexo Finance, among others, also received a few hundred million USDT during the time.

The market makers amass profit by supplying the dollar-backed stablecoins to centralized exchanges, such as Binance, Huobi, FTX, Poloniex, etc., providing liquidity for their different USDT trading pairs.

Alameda Research Leads

Interestingly, between Alameda Research and Cumberland Global, the former leads the way as the single entity that has received the highest USDT supply.

Alameda Research, founded by 29-year old Sam Bankman-Fried in 2017, has acquired $36.7 billion USDT, representing nearly a third of the stablecoin that has been minted to date. Interestingly, $31.7 billion out of the entire amount was received in the last year alone.

Alameda Research is the parent company of popular cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and the trading platform has been the biggest beneficiary of Alameda’s USDT distribution.

According to Protos, Alameda has so far sent nearly $30.1 billion in USDT to FTX, representing 87% of the company’s USDT acquisition.

Alameda also transferred $2.1 billion, $1.7 billion, and $115 million worth of USDT to its accounts on Binance, Huobi, and OKEx, respectively, while the remaining $705 million was sent to a non-exchange address.

Cumberland Follows

Launched in 2014, Cumberland was founded as a cryptocurrency trading subsidiary of market powerhouse DRW. The company has so far received $23.7 billion in USDT from Tether, with $17.6 billion acquired in the past year alone.

Out of the total USDT received by Cumberland, $18.7 billion in USDT was sent to Binance, while Poloniex and Bitfinex received $131.5 million and $9 million, respectively.

Huobi and OKEx received a combined $30 million from Cumberland, while the remaining $4.9 billion was sent to a non-exchange address.

Tether’s Continuous Growth

Tether has continued to grow tremendously, reaching a market capitalization of over $75 billion. The company is aware of its stablecoin importance in the crypto market and has ensured the cryptocurrency is supported on 14 different blockchains, such as Ethereum, Solana, and Avalanche, among others.

Per data from crypto aggregator website CoinGecko, USDT is currently ranked as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.