💥Tether Papers: This is exactly who acquired 70% of all USDT ever issued💥

TheDinarian

News • Business • Investing & Finance

November 10, 2022

If cryptocurrency was an engine, Tether (USDT) is one of its pistons.

Over the past seven years, the maverick stablecoin has evolved into a primary crutch for the ecosystem. It’s a tool for onboarding new money, managing and growing liquidity, pricing digital assets, and generally oiling crypto markets to keep them smooth.

Tether boasted a $1 billion market capitalization when Bitcoin hit $20,000 at the end of 2017. This year, it’s a $70 billion-plus powerhouse.

Practically every crypto exchange supports USDT trade in some form. The makeup of Tether’s reserves and its inner workings are yet to be disclosed in clear detail.

Still, the question of who exactly buys Tether directly from its parent company Bitfinex has remained unanswered since its inception way back in 2014.

Earlier this year, Protos shed light on that mystery by reporting that just two companies, Alameda Research and Cumberland Global, were responsible for seeping roughly two-thirds of all Tether into the crypto ecosystem.

Today, we reveal a lot more.

We’ve spent months cataloguing and investigating every single USDT ever sent to and from Tether, across the eight blockchains and layers on which it currently exists: Omni (Bitcoin), Liquid (Bitcoin), Ethereum, Tron, Simple Ledger Protocol (Bitcoin Cash), EOS, Solana, and Algorand.

Here’s what we found.

Birds-eye view of Tether

Protos pulled blockchain data from all disclosed Tether Treasuries and Printers across the various layers, stretching back to 2014 until October 31, 2021.

We then filtered out transactions between Printers and Treasuries, as our analysis is primarily concerned with USDT sent to and received from third parties.

After accounting for disclosed chain swaps (the process of transferring already-issued USDT between protocols), blockchain data shows Tether:

distributed $108.5 billion in USDT,
received $32.7 billion in USDT in that same period,
sent a staggering majority of USDT directly to market makers and liquidity providers.

It must be noted that the figures cited in this analysis won’t always map one-to-one with Tether’s circulating supply.

Remember, we’ve tracked Tether Treasuries’ outflows and inflows; those volumes will not reflect Tether’s market value exactly (implying that Tether understandably recycles some USDT sent back to its Treasuries).

To make it clear: we’ve analyzed USDT flowing out of Tether Treasuries and linked blockchain addresses to specific entities.

Some of these entities maintain crypto exchanges; the data presented here relates specifically to their operational addresses as companies and not their exchange wallets, be they hot or cold.

Market makers, for our purposes, are simply defined as entities that have received multiple individual transactions from Tether Treasuries of $100 million USDT or more.

The term “market maker” traditionally refers to entities able to profit on the spread of assets (the difference in price between buy and sell orders).

Since it’s unclear which entities in the crypto ecosystem are strictly market making and which also utilize high frequency trading, proprietary trading desks, or operate venture capital funds, this is our attempt to delineate between them (albeit with a broad definition).

Within the context of Tether, market makers eke out gains by supplying crypto exchanges like Binance, Huobi, and FTX with liquidity for their various USDT trading pairs.

Tether supplied categorized “market makers” with 89.2% of all USDT ($97 billion) it sent.
Trading funds and other miscellaneous companies received $9.2 billion (8.5%).
Smaller transactions deemed to have been received by “individuals” amounted to $2.35 billion (2.3%).

As Protos reported in August, market makers Alameda Research (spearheaded by crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried) and Cumberland Global (a subsidiary of trading giant DRW) are still the biggest fish in Tether markets.

Together, Alameda and Cumberland received at least $60.3 billion in USDT across the time period analyzed, equal to around 55% of all outbound volume — ever.

$49.2 billion (71%) of Alameda and Cumberland’s USDT was acquired in the past year alone, equal to about 60% of all Tether issued in that time.

Market makers (Tether’s biggest customers)

Alameda Research

Alameda Research describes itself as a “multistage crypto and fintech investment firm,” and it made 29-year-old chief exec Bankman-Fried crypto’s richest billionaire (Forbes estimates his wealth at $26.5 billion).

Bankman-Fried founded Alameda Research in 2017 after leaving quant shop Jane Street. He opted to brand the fund a “research” unit to avoid banking problems as it started arbitrage Bitcoin trade in Japan.

The firm has historically been headquartered in Hong Kong, but recently announced plans to ship over to another tax haven, Nassau.

We’ve identified more than 70% of all USDT ever issued. For more information on the remaining 30%, please visit our FAQ.
Alameda Research wears multiple hats. It’s the parent company of crypto and crypto derivatives exchange FTX, but it’s also a quantitative trader, and serves as a venture capitalist across the ecosystem.
The firm has led an impressive 18 funding rounds and participated in 71 more, according to Crunchbase.
One of Alameda’s most notable moves was its participation in ‘Ethereum killer’ Solana’s $314 million token sale earlier this year, alongside Polychain Capital and CoinShares.
Alameda Research’s lead brain Bankman-Fried is one of Solana’s most vocal proponents. Solana’s native token SOL has since grown to become the **fifth most-valued cryptocurrency** at press time, just behind Tether.
Tether sent almost $36.7 billion in USDT to Alameda Research.
$31.7 billion (86%) was received in the past year.
Alameda Research accounted for 37% of all outbound volume.
While Tether sent nearly $30.1 billion (87%) of Alameda’s USDT directly to FTX, blockchain data shows Alameda operating on a number of other crypto exchanges.
Alameda also received:
$2.1 billion (6%) on Binance,
$1.7 billion (5%) on Huobi,
$115 million (less than 1%) to OKEx.
The rest of Alameda’s Tether ($705 million, 2%) was sent to non-exchange addresses.
Cumberland Global
Cumberland Global is the crypto-trading subsidiary of markets powerhouse DRW, founded in 1992 by chief exec Donald R. Wilson.
As we reported in August, DRW is one of finance’s top dogs, particularly in futures markets (the Financial Times previously said the unit is “an important source” of futures trading volume across the globe).
Cumberland was first launched in 2014, during DRW’s gruelling **five-year battle with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission** (CFTC) over alleged market manipulation — which it won in 2018.
Cumberland says it onboards wealthy individuals and financial institutions to the crypto ecosystem.
One of those clients is VanEck. The US Securities and Exchange Commission visited DRW in 2019 to discuss the listing of VanEck’s SolidX Bitcoin Trust on Cboe.
VanEck’s Trust was eventually offered to institutional investors via over-the-counter desks like the ones DRW operates.
Tether sent $23.7 billion in USDT to Cumberland.
$17.6 billion (74%) was received in the past year.
Cumberland received 22% of all outbound volume.
It has long been suspected, but Protos can confirm that **Cumberland is one of Binance’s primary liquidity providers** and market makers, and has been on the exchange since around early 2019.
Tether issued Cumberland $18.7 billion in USDT (79%) directly to Binance, and a much smaller amount to other exchanges:
$131.5 million (less than 1%) on Poloniex.
$9 million (less than 1%) on Bitfinex.
$30 million (less than 1%) on both Huobi and OKEx.
The rest of Cumberland’s Tether ($4.9 billion, 21%) was sent to non-exchange addresses.
iFinex
iFinex is the mother company to its more well-known subsidiaries Bitfinex and Tether. The group has existed in the cryptocurrency space since 2013 and has survived three different hacks, regulatory scrutiny, and extended criticism from online commentators and mainstream media.
iFinex operates as a lender, exchange, stablecoin issuer, VC fund, and trading desk. It has a parent company, the Hong Kong-registered DigFinex.
It’s difficult to determine exactly which country iFinex, Bitfinex, and Tether operates out of: there are no actual offices. Instead, the organization is a **mesh of shell companies** located in the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and other jurisdictions.
iFinex owners and shareholders seem to be the same individuals who launched it: chief exec JL Van der Velde and chief financial officer Giancarlo Devasini — the two-man team leading Bitfinex and Tether (both multi-billion dollar companies).
Chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino began working for the pair in 2016. Functionally, as the creators of Tether, they work with everyone who receives USDT.
Tether sent at least $4.5 billion in USDT to iFinex.
Only $197.5 million (4%) of that was in the past year.
iFinex received at least 4% of all outbound volume.
As to be expected, iFinex was one of Tether’s first true “market makers.” The Hong Kong-headquartered firm issued iFinex $4.5 billion in USDT between October 2016 and the start of 2020 — equal to 96% of iFinex’s trackable receipts.
$4.46 billion (9.99%) was sent directly to Bitfinex.
$1.1 million (less than 1%) was issued to wallets unrelated to Bitfinex.
iFinex received at least 4% of all USDT issued across the time period analyzed.
iFinex and its subsidiaries have invested in several other ventures, including but not limited to Netki (a digital identity company) and Exordium (a video game company owned by Blockstream’s Samson Mow).
Nexo
Zug-registered Nexo is a sizable player in the DeFi ecosystem. It operates an exchange, a crypto lending service, and an over-the-counter trading desk.
Nexo’s crypto platform **offers yield on a raft of cryptocurrencies**, including stablecoins like Tether.
Nexo has been around since 2017, having deployed its own utility token NEXO in May 2018.
Understandably, Nexo handles large amounts of USDT to help manage its activities within the space.
Tether sent Nexo $2.6 billion in USDT.
Practically all of that was in the past year.
Nexo received a touch over 2% of all outbound volume.
The group doesn’t issue directly to exchanges, instead relying on intermediary wallets to manage its USDT.
Nexo directed at least $1.7 billion USDT directly to its own platform, but similarly to Alameda Research, it is active across multiple exchanges.
As for where Nexo directs its USDT (these figures also include USDT inflows not directly from Tether Treasuries), the unit:
sent roughly $1.45 billion in USDT to Binance,
directed $111 million in USDT to Huobi,
and deposited more than $57 million USDT to FTX.
Nexo also administered $39 million USDT to defunct Chinese exchange RenRenBit, and $84 million USDT to Bitfinex.
*(NB: Nexo and other entities named in this research are known to **handle funds on behalf of their clients**. So, it could be that some of their outflowing USDT was processed for those parties.)*
The firm sent roughly $35 million in USDT to addresses not linked directly to exchanges.
Last month, the New York Attorney General issued Nexo a cease and desist notice to stop it from offering services to crypto users in the state.
At the time, its chief exec Antoni Trenchev said the company had already initiated IP-based geo-blocking to keep New Yorkers out.
Heka
Heka is a market-neutral market maker operated by academics from the University of Malta and several other Maltese individuals. Specifically named in the Paradise Papers are Professor Simon Grima, Dr. Frank Dimech, as well as Joseph Xuerub and Adrian Galea.
The price per share to invest in Heka’s private fund is public and has increased by nearly 100% over three years. Minimum investment amount is $85,000.
Recently, Heka seems to be tied to Abraxas Capital Management — a company controlled by professional portfolio manager Fabio Frontini and based in London.
Tether sent Heka more than $1.5 billion in USDT.
$1.1 billion (71%) of that was distributed in the past year.
Heka received about 1.5% of all Tether ever distributed.
Heka is primarily a cryptocurrency trading operation. So, naturally it requested Tether directly to the various exchanges it inhabits.
Overall, Heka utilized:
at least $1.05 billion in USDT (68%) on Bitfinex,
more than $144 million (9%) on Binance,
and $132 million (8.5%) on Huobi.
Heka also traded on the no-longer-operational RenRenBit ($90 million, 6%), as well as the popular platform Kraken, where it received $60.4 million (4%).
Just over $70 million (4.5%) in USDT was sent to non-exchange addresses under Heka’s control.
Indeed, Heka moves hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Tether and yet they have no website, **no way to reach out to them**, and no real internet presence whatsoever.
The reason they’ve been flagged is their discoverability through the Paradise Papers. None of the individuals from Heka responded for comment.
Jump Crypto
Last September, Chicago-bound trading giant Jump Trading made a widely publicized crypto push by investing in decentralized exchange Serum, on Solana.
Serum and Jump had inked a deal for an undisclosed amount that would see the outfit provide the liquidity necessary to make Serum-powered platforms like Mango Markets usable.
Since then, Tether has issued Jump:
at least $1.1 billion in USDT on Solana this year,
equal to almost 99% of all USDT that exists on that blockchain.
Jump Crypto is considered the top liquidity provider to Mango Markets and Solana overall.
Jump “officially” spun out its Crypto subsidiary this September.
At the time, press materials said Jump Crypto builds tooling and other software infrastructure for blockchains, as well as being an “active participant in trading and market-making activities that help make global crypto markets more efficient.”
While Jump’s crypto activities have been mostly undisclosed, reports indicate the unit has been **particularly active on crypto exchanges Bitfinex and BitMEX**.
This makes it likely that Jump makes up a considerable amount of the unidentified Tether amounts cited in this analysis, particularly those to Bitfinex.
Funds and companies (Tether’s medium-sized customers)
Protos sorted entities into the ‘funds and companies’ bracket if they often received USDT transactions in lots between $10 million and $100 million at a time.
Many of the entities in this category are hedge funds and trading units, which generate profit by investing and trading cryptocurrencies.
Multiple entities maintain over-the-counter trading desks and other arbitrage units to exploit price differences between exchanges.
Three Arrows
Three Arrows Capital is run by popular crypto personalities Su Zhu and Kyle Davies. It has registered business addresses in both Singapore (where it maintains an office) and the British Virgin Islands.
As of 2020, the company had a large interest in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. The reason Three Arrows has two registered business addresses is likely due to the rule in Singapore that says it cannot control more than (S)$250 million ($183 million) in assets at any given time.
Tether sent Three Arrows at least $674 million in USDT.
At least $502 million (74%) of that was in the past year.
Three Arrows has received at a minimum 7.3% of all USDT in the ‘funds and companies’ bracket.
Three Arrows describes itself as a crypto hedge fund that provides “risk-adjusted returns,” and it operates similarly to Heka.
The group mostly trades and invests in cryptocurrencies for profit, as opposed to the large-scale liquidity provision exacted by the likes of Alameda and Cumberland.
It also acts as a venture capitalist on occasion. Most recently, **Three Arrows backed Sam Altman’s Worldcoin**, a controversial biometric data-farming gambit that pays individuals to scan their irises for a small amount of cryptocurrency.
Unlike Heka, Three Arrows receives USDT from Tether to an intermediary address before distributing it to trading platforms like Huobi and Binance.
Stablecoins aside, Three Arrows’ main address has mostly traded:
Ethereum and Ethereum-bound Bitcoin (WBTC),
DeFi platform Yearn Finance’s native token (YFI),
Exchange tokens like FTX’s FTT, Uniswap (UNI), and SushiSwap (SUSHI).
Three Arrows has also handled significant amounts of yield tokens Compound (COMP) and Aave (AAVE), as well as blockchain oracle token Chainlink (LINK).
It’s worth noting that Three Arrows — like the other entities in this analysis — has handled significantly more than $674 million USDT in its history. The figures cited above only relate to the tokens it received directly from Tether Treasuries.
Three Arrows has also sent Tether Treasuries **far more USDT than the figures listed here** (more on that later).
Blockchain data also indicates that Three Arrows switched to receiving USDT directly to exchanges earlier this year — likely to Binance.
So, some portion of the “Binance Market Maker” volumes cited earlier almost certainly belongs to Three Arrows.
Bitquery shows that Three Arrows has collectively been sent billions in USDT from exchanges Binance, Bitfinex, and FTX, funds it acquires by trading digital assets.
Delchain
Delchain is a peculiar piece of the Tether puzzle. It’s owned and operated by Tether’s primary banking partner, Deltec Bank and Trust.
Paolo Ardoino, Tether and Bitfinex’s CTO, briefly served as a director, and Janvier Chalopin, the **son of the Deltec Bank and Trust’s chief exec**, is a director.
Delchain, though established in 2019, has still moved a significant amount of Tether and partners with many influential cryptocurrency companies, including Bitfinex, Kraken, and Tether itself.
Tether sent Delchain at least $908 million in USDT.
USDT was distributed steadily over time — 63% of it in the past year.
Delchain received about 10% of all USDT from the ‘funds and companies’ bracket.
Overall, Delchain directed:
About $694 million (76%) of its USDT to Bitfinex,
$211 million (23%) to Kraken,
and $3.2 million (less than 1%) to Binance.
Blockchain Access and RenRenBit
UK-based market maker Blockchain Access is another notable entity to have received large amounts of USDT directly from Tether.
Blockchain Access manages crypto exchange Blockchain.com — headquartered in Luxembourg. It received more than $881 million in USDT, with $679 million (77%) issued in the past year.
We tracked Blockchain Access’ USDT to crypto exchanges including Binance, FTX, Bitfinex, and Nexo. It has also handled significant amounts of Basic Attention Token (BAT), DeFi token Aave, as well as Chainlink, OMG Network, and Origin Network.
Lastly, RenRenBit. The Singapore-headquartered company that serviced the China-based exchange of the same name was issued over $200 million in USDT.
*(NB: Bitfinex’s AML agent was once a Hong Kong firm “Renrenbee Ltd,” highlighting how close RenRenBit’s relationship was with Bitfinex).*
Individual traders (Tether’s smallest customers)
For our ‘individuals’ bracket, we considered entities to be individual traders if Tether issued them USDT valued under $10 million at a time.
This is obviously not perfect, however considering the volumes linked to aforementioned funds, companies, and market makers, this proves an effective method of **separating crypto trading enterprises** from individual crypto traders.
The first character on our list is tied to multiple companies, but according to information gathered by Protos, they also were issued Tether under their personal name.
Shilong’s Web, Tether’s most curious customer
Shilong Wang is a curiosity, to say the least. They appear, on the surface, to handle USDT for a raft of trading firms, including little-known managers Paretone Capital, Aoide Capital, Max Victory Wealth Management, and ZB Trade — registered to tax havens around the world.
Paretone and Aoide curiously share a physical address in San Jose, California at Hanhai Park. Their co-founder and chief exec is listed as a “Keke Wang” on Aoide’s website, who is noticeably absent from any corporate filings.
Protos **visited Paretone and Aoide’s purported offices** but found no mention of either firm on the building’s office guide.
We refers to Shilong-connected entities as “Shilong’s Web.”
Tether issued Shilong’s Web $595 million in USDT.
Roughly 1% of it was received in the past year.
Shilong’s Web is responsible for 6.5% of the ‘funds and companies’ bracket.
It should be highlighted just how important a customer Shilong was to Tether. In the second half of 2019, Shilong’s Web **represented over 5% of all USDT ever issued** — just before the likes of Alameda and Cumberland took such a keen interest.
Shilong’s Web unexpectedly transacted semi-frequently with Cumberland Global:
Shilong’s Web sent Cumberland $20.4 million in USDT between April and August 2019.
Cumberland directed $1.14 million in USDT back to Shilong’s Web in April 2019.
It’s likely Cumberland operates over-the-counter services for trading entities like Shilong’s.
Shilong’s Web deposited its USDT to exchanges like Huobi and Binance, but it was also responsible for sending over $108 million in USDT to long-serving Japanese exchange Bitbank.
Christopher Harborne (the Brexit Bankroller)
As we reported in April, Christopher Harborne made international headlines as Brexit’s bankroller.
He personally donated in total $19 million to political party Reform UK — the lead lobbying group behind the UK’s successful bid to leave the European Union.
Harborne’s web of shell companies were made public in the Panama Papers.
Harborne first appeared as a DigFinex shareholder (iFinex, Bitfinex, and Tether’s parent company) under his alternative Thai identity Chakrit Sakunkrit between 2017 and 2018.
This means Harborne **was a DigFinex shareholder** at the time of his donations to Reform UK. It’s common for individuals who do continued business in Thailand to adopt a local moniker.
He’s also the father of Will Harborne, chief exec of decentralized exchange DiversiFi, which started out Ethfinex, a sister company to Bitfinex. DiversiFi spun out from Bitfinex in 2019.
Protos can now reveal that Tether issued Harborne more than $70 million in USDT under his Thai name in early 2019.
TRON’s Justin Sun
Notorious marketeer and TRON founder Justin Sun has received more Tether than any other individual.
We first made Sun’s prolific Tether buying public in August. In total, he’s acquired at least $200 million in USDT. Most of the funds we’ve linked to Sun were sent throughout 2019 and 2020.
Sun received nearly $50 million in USDT directly on Binance. It’s likely he’s received a lot more to both unidentified wallets and various exchanges.
Sun was notably the **first ever recipient of Tether on the TRON blockchain** in April 2019. He’s evolved to become a prolific investor in NFTs and his exploits across the DeFi ecosystem have made him a popular crypto figure.
Blockchain data also shows he sent $120 million back to Tether Treasuries.
Tether returned to Treasuries (inflows)
Tether inflows — funds sent back to Tether Treasuries — are comparatively more difficult to track than outflows.
While Protos has identified more than 70% worth of USDT ever issued, more than 80% of USDT ever returned to Treasuries came from cryptocurrency exchanges.
This makes the sender of those transactions practically impossible to identify.
$23 billion in USDT (62%) was returned in lots over $100 million (market makers).
$12.7 billion (34%) was sent in batches between $10 million and $100 million (funds and companies).
$1.5 billion (4%) flowed into Treasuries in sums under $10 million (individual traders).
We did manage to track USDT inflows for two prominent entities: Three Arrows and Nexo.
While Three Arrows did switch from having USDT issued to third party wallets to exchanges like Binance instead, it kept **retrieving funds from various exchanges** to its main wallet before returning to Tether.
Three Arrows sent back nearly $1.96 billion in USDT in the time period analyzed.
More than $1.1 billion (58%) was returned as crypto markets peaked between late April and May this year.
Three Arrows is responsible for 5.2% of all USDT ever sent back to Treasuries.
As for Nexo, it followed similar patterns as Three Arrows — pulling funds back from the various exchanges on which it operates before returning USDT to Treasuries.
Nexo sent $1.74 billion in USDT back to Tether Treasuries.
Nearly $1.75 billion (94%) was returned between the second half of May and late July, 2021 (as markets bottomed out).
Nexo was behind 4.7% of all USDT sent back to Tether Treasuries.
What the Tether Papers mean
It must be stressed that Protos is not explicitly alleging any wrongdoing on behalf of any of the entities detailed in this investigation.
But importantly, crypto traders on most exchanges should understand the sheer size of who they could be trading against.
The exact size of market makers like Cumberland and Alameda — as well as funds like Heka, Three Arrows, and Delchain — **are previously unreported**.
These entities are undoubtedly dominant forces across multiple platforms, with the ability to easily out-trade smaller crypto investors.
Numerous other large and unnamed trading funds have acquired hundreds of millions of dollars in USDT. These companies are mostly registered to tax havens like the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, and the Seychelles.
Some, similarly to Shilong’s Web, have sent and received USDT from major players like Cumberland Global, while others assisted prominent projects such as Decentraland to manage Ether raised throughout their ICOs.
The total value of the Tether in the ‘other funds and companies’ bracket exceeded $7 billion. Protos will reveal information about these companies in future investigations.
Still, we emphasize that Tether has indisputably embedded itself within the crypto ecosystem, and for better or worse, serves a purpose within it.
So, it stands to reason that any firm or individual who operates within the crypto space is likely to interact with USDT at some point.
It’s worth highlighting that funds like Three Arrows effectively make use of the Tether they receive, as proven by inflow patterns.
Three Arrows was able to **acquire USDT in the leadup to a giant crypto bull run**, and then return those funds as the market was cooling off.
This shows that USDT can be utilized for profit — as it should. It is the leading stablecoin, and allowing traders a neutral zone to trade in and out of their crypto positions is its entire business model.
💥But the exact workings of Tether are unclear. Quite literally, nobody knows precisely how Tether operates — or which companies’ commercial paper make up an overwhelming majority of its assets backing USDT.💥
**💥We understand that Tether lends out its USDT in overcollateralized loans, likely for Bitcoin and Ether, but Tether has never formally disclosed how those operations work.💥**
💥In fact, **Tether has gone out of its way to obfuscate the services it provides to the crypto industry.💥**
Discounts for large issuances are rumored. In our research, we are yet to find any confirmation of any discounts for USDT purchases.
But what is proven is that **Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research and Cumberland Global are two prolific Tether buyers that trust USDT is valued correctly**.
Together, they’ve acquired at least $60 billion worth of USDT in the past two years. They inject liquidity into the ecosystem’s leading exchanges based on their trust in Tether, **which in turn provides markets with the confidence that 1 USDT is equal to $1.**
**💥Whether that’s true *all the time* — unfortunately nobody knows for sure.💥**
Regardless, Cumberland and Alameda, and to a lesser extent units like Jump Crypto, believe every USDT is always “fully backed by Tether’s reserves,” and that Tether has enough cash on hand to service dollar redemptions.
In the time between the end of Protos’ data analysis (October 31 until today), **Tether has printed more than $4 billion worth of its stablecoin, bringing the total USDT in circulation to nearly $75 billion.**
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🔑 Key Breakthroughs

🔹️ Historic First: Bitnomial’s Designated Contract Market (DCM) and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) will list spot BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL side-by-side with futures & perps—single portfolio margin, net settlement, T+0 delivery.

🔹️ Federal Umbrella: All orders—retail or institutional—clear through a CFTC-supervised clearing house, eliminating the patch-work of state money-transmitter licences that has kept U.S. leverage platforms ...

WWW.COINDESK.COM

U.S. CFTC-Driven Spot Crypto Trading Going Live, Opening Up New (Regulated) Arena

President Donald Trump's push toward friendly crypto policies produced a CFTC-led effort to encourage leveraged spot crypto trading, starting with Bitnomial.

thedinarian@thedinarian

1 hour ago

‼️HOW XRP RISES TO A SIGNIFICANTLY HIGH + STABLE VALUE‼️

As more Banks integrate Ripple’s DLT for International Payments, overall Transaction Flow across the network increases.📈

Payment Service Providers such as Finastra, Volante, and CGI will tap into XRPL’s Cross-Currency RTGS functions and its Neutral Liquidity Marketplace, adding even more activity to the network.💯

This momentum drives continued expansion of the XRP Ecosystem.🧩

XRP’s SUPPLY steadily declines over time because a small amount is DESTROYED with every transaction.💥

With SUPPLY TIGHTENING and DEMAND RISING, DEMAND naturally strengthens.

As Network Participation grows and XRP Utility increases, its VALUE moves higher.🚀

Ripple expects market VOLATILITY to level out as XRP gains consistent utility as a Bridge Asset.🔑

A growing network paired with a DECREASING SUPPLY BASE supports sustained PRICE APPRECIATION.

This positions XRP as an increasingly valuable and dependable asset within Global Payments.

Documented.✅📝

OP: Smqkedqg

thedinarian@thedinarian

1 hour ago

🚨 MALAYSIA CRACKS DOWN ON BITCOIN MINERS BEHIND 1.1 B ELECTRICITY THEFT 🚨

Malaysian authorities have launched “Operasi Kripto Suria”, a nationwide blitz that has so far raided 487 premises, seized 76,000 ASICs and cut power to 1.4 GW of illicit load—the largest electricity-theft bust in Southeast-Asian history, valued at RM 5.2 billion (US 1.1 billion) in stolen electrons since 2022.

🔑 Key Facts

🔹️ Grid-Wide Raid: Energy Commission (ST) + Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) + police swept 11 states in 72 hours; Penang alone accounted for 420 MW of illegal load—equal to a 400 MW gas-turbine plant.

🔹️Theft Techniques: Minions tapped 11 kV distribution lines, used bypass jumpers, tampered smart meters and fake RFID seals; some sites ran 24/7 on stolen power for >18 months.

🔹️Seized Hardware: 76,000 rigs (mostly S19 & M50 series), 1,200 transformers, 600 km of illegal cable; three container-loads of ASICs are already on the block for public auction.

🔹️Arrests & Penalties: ...

DECRYPT.CO

Malaysia Cracks Down on Bitcoin Miners Behind $1.1B Electricity Theft - Decrypt

A new taskforce is using drones and sensors to find power thieves, after 14,000 illicit mining operations have been uncovered over five years.

thedinarian@thedinarian

November 30, 2025

XDC Network's acquisition of Contour Network

XDC Network's acquisition of Contour Network marks a silent shift to connect the digital trade infrastructure to real-time, tokenized settlement rails.

In a world where cross-border payments still take days and trap trillions in idle liquidity, integrating Contour’s trade workflows with XDC Network Blockchains' ISO 20022 financial messaging standard to bridge TradFi and Web3 in Trade Finance.

The Current State of Cross-Border Trade Settlements

Cross-border payments remain one of the most inefficient parts of global finance. For decades, companies have inter-dependency with banks and their correspondent banks across the world, forcing them to maintain trillions of dollars in pre-funded nostro and vostro balances — the capital that sits idle while transactions crawl across borders.

Traditional settlement is slow, often 1–5 days, and often with ~2-3% in FX and conversion fees. For every hour a corporation can’t access its own cash increases the cost of financing, tightens liquidity that could be used for other purposes, which in turn slows economic activity.

Before SWIFT, payments were fully manual. Intermediary banks maintained ledgers, and reconciliation across multiple institutions limited speed and volume.

SWIFT reshaped global payments by introducing a secure, standardized messaging infrastructure through ISO 20022 - which quickly became the language of money for 11,000+ institutions in 200 countries.

But SWIFT only fixed the messaging — not the movement. Actual value still moves through slow, capital-intensive correspondent chains.

Regulated and Compliant Stablecoin such as USDC (Circle) solves the part SWIFT never could: instant, on-chain settlement.

Stablecoin Settlement revamping Trade and Tokenization

Stablecoin such as USDC is a digital token pegged to the US Dollar, still the most widely used currency for trade, enabling the movement of funds instantly 24*7 globally - transparently, instantly, and without the need for any intermediaries and the need to lock in trillions of dollars of idle cash.

Tokenized settlement replaces multi-day reconciliation with on-chain finality, reducing:

Dependency on intermediaries
Operational friction
Trillions locked in idle liquidity

For corporates trapped in long working capital cycles, this is transformative.

Digital dollars like USDC make the process simple:

Fiat → Stablecoin → On-Chain Transfer → Fiat

This hybrid model is already widely used across remittances, payouts, and treasury flows.

But one critical piece of global commerce is still lagging:

👉 Trade finance.

The Missing link is still Trade Finance Infrastructure.

While payments innovation has raced ahead, trade finance infrastructure hasn’t kept up. Document flows, letters of credit, and supply-chain financing remain siloed, paper-heavy, and operationally outdated.

This is exactly where the next breakthrough will happen - and why the recent XDC Network acquisition of Contour is a silent revolution.

It transforms to a new era of trade-driven liquidity through an end-to-end digital trade from shipping docs to payment confirmation – one infrastructure that powers all.

The breakthrough won’t come from payments alone — it will come from connecting trade finance to real-time settlement rails.

The XDC + Contour Shift: A Silent Revolution

Contour already connects global banks and corporates through digital LCs and digitized trade workflows.
XDC Blockchain brings a settlement layer built for speed, tokenization, and institutional-grade interoperability and ISO 20022 messaging compatibility

Contour’s digital letter of credit workflows will be integrated with XDC’s blockchain network to streamline trade documentation and settlement.

Together, they form the first end-to-end digital trade finance network linking:

Documentation → Validation → Settlement all under a single infrastructure.

XDC Ventures (XVC.TECH) is launching a Stable-Coin Lab to work with financial institutions on regulated stablecoin pilots for trade to deepen institutional trade-finance integration through launch of pilots with banks and corporates for regulated stable-coin issuance and settlement.

The Bottom Line

Payments alone won’t transform Global Trade Finance — Trade finance + Tokenized Settlement will.

This is the shift happening underway XDC Network's acquisition of Contour is the quiet catalyst.

Learn how trade finance is being revolutionised:

https://www.reuters.com/press-releases/xdc-ventures-acquires-contour-network-launches-stablecoin-lab-trade-finance-2025-10-22/

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thedinarian@thedinarian

November 30, 2025

Inside The Deal That Made Polymarket’s Founder One Of The Youngest Billionaires On Earth🌍

One year ago, the FBI raided Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan’s apartment. Now, the college dropout is a billionaire at age 27.

In July, Jeffrey Sprecher, the 70-year-old billionaire CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, sat at Manhatta, an upscale restaurant in the financial district overlooking the sprawling New York City skyline from the 60th floor. As a sommelier weaved through tables pouring wine, in walked Shayne Coplan—in a T-shirt and jeans, clutching a plastic water bottle and a paper bag with a bagel he’d picked up en route. Sprecher chuckles as he recalls his first impression of the boyish, eccentric entrepreneur: “An old bald guy that works at the New York Stock Exchange, where we require that you wear a suit and tie, next to a mop-headed guy in a T-shirt that's 27.” But Sprecher was fascinated by Polymarket, Coplan’s blockchain-based prediction market, and after dinner, he made his move: “I asked Shayne if he would consider selling us his company.”

Prediction markets like Polymarket let thousands of ordinary people bet on future events—the unemployment rate, say, or when BitCoin will hit an all-time high. In aggregate, prediction market bets have proven to be something of a crystal ball with the wisdom of the crowd often proving itself more prescient than expert opinion. For instance, Polymarket punters predicted that Trump would prevail in the 2024 presidential election, when many national pundits were sure that Kamala Harris would win.

Coplan initially turned down Sprecher’s buyout offer. But discussions led to negotiations and eventually a deal. In October, Intercontinental announced it had invested $2 billion for an up to 25% stake in the company, bringing the young solo founder the balance he was looking for. “We're consumer, we’re viral, we're culture. They’re finance, they’re headless and they’re infrastructure,” Coplan tells Forbes in a recent interview.

At the same time, Coplan announced investments from other billionaires including Figma’s Dylan Field, Zynga’s Mark Pincus, Uber’s Travis Kalanick and hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin. A longtime Red Hot Chili Peppers fan, Coplan even convinced lead singer Anthony Kiedis to invest after a mutual acquaintance brought the musician to Coplan’s apartment one day. “He's buzzing my door, and I’m like, ‘holy shit,'” Coplan recalls, his bright blue eyes widening. “I love their music. A lot of the inspiration [for my work] comes from the music that I listen to.”

Thanks to the deals, Polymarket’s valuation quickly shot to $9 billion, making the 2025 Under 30 alum the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, with an estimated 11% stake worth $1 billion. His reign was short: twenty days later, he was overtaken as the youngest by the three 22-year-old founders of AI startup Mercor.

Young entrepreneurs are minting ten-figure fortunes faster than ever. In addition to the Mercor trio and Coplan, 15 other Under 30 alumni—including ScaleAI cofounder Lucy Guo, Reddit’s Steve Huffman and Cursor’s cofounders—became billionaires this year, while Guo’s cofounder Alexandr Wang and Robinhood’s Vlad Tenev (both former Under 30 honorees) regained their billionaire status after having fallen out of the ranks.

The budding billionaire has long been fascinated by markets and tech. When he was just 14, Coplan emailed the regional Securities and Exchange Commission office to ask how to create new marketplaces. “I did not get a response, but it’s a really funny email,” he says, grinning playfully as he thinks of his younger self. “It just shows that this stuff takes over a decade of percolating in your mind.”

Two years later, Coplan showed up at the offices of internet startup Genius uninvited after multiple emails of his asking for an internship went ignored. At age 16—at least a decade younger than anyone in that office—he secured his first job after making a memorable impression with his “wild curls” and “encyclopedic knowledge of billionaire tech entrepreneurs.” “If he chooses to become a tech entrepreneur, which seems likely, I have no doubt that we’ll be seeing his name again in the press before long,” Chris Glazek, his manager at the time, wrote in Coplan’s college recommendation letter.

Coplan went on to study computer science at NYU, but dropped out in 2017 to work on various crypto projects that never took off. In 2020, he founded Polymarket to create a solution to the “rampant misinformation” he saw in the world: The company’s first market allowed users to bet on when New York City would reopen amid the pandemic. He soon expanded into elections and pop culture happenings, among other events.

But it didn’t take long for the company to butt heads with regulators. In January 2022, Polymarket paid a $1.4 million fine to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for offering unregistered markets. It was also ordered to block all U.S. users, but activity on Polymarket skyrocketed particularly during the 2024 U.S. presidential election, with bets totaling $3.6 billion. A week after the election, the FBI raided Coplan's apartment and seized his devices as part of an investigation into a possible violation of this agreement. Shortly after, Coplan posted on his X account that he saw the raid as “a last-ditch effort” from the Biden administration “to go after companies they deem to be associated with political opponents.”

In July, the Department of Justice and CFTC dropped the investigations—after which Sprecher reached out to Coplan for dinner—and less than a week later, Polymarket announced it had acquired CFTC-licensed derivatives exchange QCX to prepare for a compliant U.S. launch. QCX applied to be a federally-registered exchange in 2022—an application that was left dormant for three years before receiving approval less than two weeks before the acquisition was announced. When asked about the timing of the deal, Coplan points to CFTC acting chairwoman Caroline Pham, who President Trump tapped to lead the agency in January. “Caroline deserves a lot of credit for getting every single license that had been paused for no reason approved, as acting chairwoman in less than a year,” he says. Coplan had realized an acquisition might be the only way for Polymarket to legally operate in the U.S. as early as 2021 due to the lengthy federal approval process, a source familiar with the deal told Forbes.

Just two months after the acquisition and days after Donald Trump Jr. joined Polymarket’s advisory board, the company received federal approval to launch in the U.S. (Trump Jr. has also served as a strategic advisor to Polymarket’s main competitor Kalshi since January.)

Polymarket’s rapid rise has drawn critics. Dennis Kelleher, co-founder and CEO of Washington-based financial advocacy group Better Markets, told Forbes in an email that the current administration’s deregulation around prediction markets has unlocked a regulatory “loophole” to enable “unregulated gambling” under the CFTC, “which has zero expertise, capacity or resources to regulate and police these markets.” Kelleher added that with backing from the Trump family “who are directly trying to profit on this new gambling den… the massive deregulation and crypto hysteria will almost certainly end badly for the American people.”

Investors and businesses are scrambling to seize the moment of deregulation. “We had opportunities to invest in events markets earlier, but there was a lot of risk,” Sprecher says, listing the regulatory changes in favor of crypto and prediction markets under the current administration. “This was the moment to invest if we wanted to still be early in the space.”

In the last few months, Trump’s Truth Social and sportsbook FanDuel, as well as cryptocurrency exchanges Crypto.com, Coinbase and Gemini all announced their own plans to offer prediction markets. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said prediction markets, which were integrated into its platform in March, were helping drive record activity for the retail brokerage in its third quarter earnings call.

“People are starting to realize right now that the opportunities are endless,” says Dubin, the billionaire hedge fund veteran who invested in Polymarket earlier this year. He points to sports betting companies, which have been regulated by states as gambling activity and taxed accordingly. States like New York can tax up to 51% of sportsbooks’ revenue, but federally-regulated prediction markets can bypass state laws, avoiding taxes and operating in all 50 states. With the realization that prediction markets could upend the sports betting industry—which brought in $13.7 billion in revenue in 2024—businesses are quickly jumping on board despite pushback from state gambling regulators. In October, both Polymarket and Kalshi secured partnerships with sportsbook PrizePicks and the National Hockey League, and Polymarket announced exclusive partnerships with sportsbook DraftKings and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The disruption won’t be limited to sports betting. Alongside its investment, Intercontinental’s tens of thousands of institutional clients including large hedge funds and over 750 third-party providers of data will soon have access to Polymarket data, as it gets integrated into Intercontinental’s products such as indices to better inform investment decisions. It also hopes to work with Polymarket to work on initiatives around tokenization—or converting financial assets into digital tokens on blockchain technology—to allow traders on Intercontinental’s exchanges to trade more flexibly at all hours of the day, Sprecher says. What’s more, in November, Google Finance announced it would integrate Polymarket and Kalshi data into its search results, while Yahoo Finance also announced an exclusive partnership with Polymarket.

Despite flashy investors, partnerships and a record $2.4 billion of trading volume in November, Polymarket has yet to launch in the U.S. or turn a profit. Coplan and his investors have hinted at ways the company could make money one day—selling its data, charging fees to users, launching a cryptocurrency token (similar to Ethereum or Bitcoin)—but decline to confirm any specifics. For now, the only thing that’s certain is the bet Coplan is making on himself. “Going for it and having it not pan out is an infinitely better outcome than living your life as a what if,” he says.

Standing across from the New York Stock Exchange building, Coplan tilts his head up as he watches a massive banner with Polymarket’s logo get hoisted onto the exterior of the building. It’s been five years since founding. One year since the FBI raid. He’s taking it all in. “Against all odds,” the bright blue banner reads, rippling in the wind alongside three American flags protruding from the building.

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thedinarian@thedinarian

November 29, 2025

Epstein-Linked Emails Expose Funding Ties to Bitcoin Core Development — Here Is What the Documents Reveal

Newly released emails show Jeffrey Epstein helped fund MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative, which supported Bitcoin Core development.
The documents also confirm that Leon Black donated to MIT’s Media Lab through Epstein-directed channels.
The revelations reshape part of Bitcoin’s early institutional funding history and highlight long-hidden influence from controversial donors.

Newly unsealed emails from the House Oversight Committee have shed fresh light on Jeffrey Epstein’s hidden financial influence inside MIT’s Media Lab — and more importantly, how some of that money flowed into Bitcoin Core development. The correspondence reveals that Joichi Ito, then-director of the MIT Media Lab, relied on Epstein-connected “gift funds” to rapidly launch the Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) in 2015, the research hub that became one of the primary sources of funding for Bitcoin’s core developers.

Emails Show Epstein-Connected Money Helped Launch MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative

In the newly surfaced emails, Ito directly thanked Epstein for the financial help that allowed MIT to “move quickly and win this round,” referring to the formation of DCI — a program explicitly designed to provide long-term support for Bitcoin Core contributors after the collapse of the Bitcoin Foundation. Ito’s forwarded message to Epstein described how the foundation’s implosion left core developers without stable funding, creating an opening for MIT to bring them under its umbrella.

He explained that three major developers — including Wladimir van der Laan and Cory Fields — agreed to join MIT, calling it “a big win for us.” The email also highlighted early support from prominent academics, including cryptographer Ron Rivest and IMF economist Simon Johnson. Epstein simply replied: “gavin is clever.”

Funding Numbers Reveal a Much Larger Financial Trail

MIT publicly claimed that Epstein donated $850,000 to the institution, with $525,000 flowing to the Media Lab. But journalist Ronan Farrow later reported the true figure was closer to $7.5 million — including a $5 million anonymous donation connected to Epstein associate Leon Black. The new emails appear to confirm that Black not only donated, but did so through Epstein’s direction.

One email from Ito to Epstein reads: “We were able to keep the Leon Black money, but the $25K from your foundation is getting bounced by MIT back to ASU.”

Epstein responded: “No problem — trying to get more black for you.”

The documents reveal Epstein’s influence reached deeper into Bitcoin circles than previously acknowledged, even including early conversations with Brock Pierce — another figure with documented ties to both Epstein and controversy surrounding early crypto foundations.

MIT’s Internal Concerns and the Fallout

The emails also expose MIT’s internal unease around anonymous or reputationally risky donations. After the scandal broke, Ito resigned in 2019. MIT later tightened donation policies, warning that “everything becomes public” eventually — a statement that now seems prophetic given this week’s disclosures.

Developers like Wladimir van der Laan say they were unaware of the extent of Epstein’s involvement and noted that DCI’s funding transparency “was not great back in the day.” The Media Lab and DCI declined to comment.

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Available on mobile and TV devices

Birds-eye view of Tether

Market makers (Tether’s biggest customers)

Alameda Research

Cumberland Global

iFinex

Nexo

Heka

Jump Crypto

Funds and companies (Tether’s medium-sized customers)

Three Arrows

Delchain

Blockchain Access and RenRenBit

Individual traders (Tether’s smallest customers)

Shilong’s Web, Tether’s most curious customer

Christopher Harborne (the Brexit Bankroller)

TRON’s Justin Sun

Tether returned to Treasuries (inflows)

What the Tether Papers mean

The Current State of Cross-Border Trade Settlements

Stablecoin Settlement revamping Trade and Tokenization

👉 Trade finance.

The Missing link is still Trade Finance Infrastructure.

The XDC + Contour Shift: A Silent Revolution

The Bottom Line

Learn how trade finance is being revolutionised:

One year ago, the FBI raided Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan’s apartment. Now, the college dropout is a billionaire at age 27.

Emails Show Epstein-Connected Money Helped Launch MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative

Funding Numbers Reveal a Much Larger Financial Trail

MIT’s Internal Concerns and the Fallout