1 PREFACE
1.0 Holders of USDT do not earn interest.
1.1 Tether charges the greater of $1000 or 0.1% on redemptions.
1.2 You cannot redeem less than 100k USDT.
1.3 Tether was the seventh largest buyer of US bonds in 2024.
1.31 The Federal Republic of Germany was the eighth.
1.4 In 2024, Tether made $93 million dollars per employee.
2 TETHER LIMITED
2.0 Tether (USDT) is operated by Tether Limited.
2.1 The owner of Tether Limited is Tether Holdings Limited.
2.2 The owners of Tether Holdings Limited are Giancarlo Devasini, J.L. van der Velde, and DigFinex, Inc.
2.3 The owners of DigFinex, Inc. are J.L. van der Velde, Giancarlo Devasini, Paolo Ardoino, Phil Potter, Stu Hoegner, and Perpetual Action Group (Asia) Inc.
2.4 DigFinex also owns iFinex.
2.41 ifinex.com is not the iFinex website.
2.5 iFinex is the parent company of Bitfinex.
3 BITFINEX
3.0 Bitfinex was founded by Raphael Nicolle, aka Raphy.
3.01 aka unclescrooge
3.1 Bitfinex reused most of the code from another exchange called Bitcoinica
3.11 Bitcoinica shutdown shortly after a suspicious transaction drained 18k btc from their wallet.
3.12 The hack happened because phantomcircuit's email was compromised.
3.121 aka Patrick Srateman
3.13 and because Bitcoinica's source code was leaked.
3.131 by genjix
3.132 aka Amir Taaki.
3.14 genjix helped to try to fix the issue.
3.15 A ssh key genjix shared for training may have also played a role in the hack.
3.16 Vitalik Buterin wrote a nice obituary for Bitcoinica.
3.2 On 06 April 2013, a BitcoinTalk user says he recently joined the Bitfinex Team doing -- among other things -- risk management.
3.21 The user's handle is Urwhatuknow
3.211 aka Giancarlo Devasini
3.22 Devasini was once (in 1995) ordered to pay Microsoft 100 million lira for selling counterfeit software.
3.23 Devasini also founded a company called Perpetual Action Group that was accused of shipping a block of wood instead of the memory chips a customer ordered.
3.24 Here is a 2009 video of Devasini cooking nettle risotto.
3.3 Devasini's signature on BitcoinTalk in Spring 2013 is: Giancarlo / Customers Relations / The Bitfinex Team
3.31 Devasini's signature on BitcoinTalk in Summer 2013 is: Giancarlo / Bitfinex Team
3.32 Devasini introduces josh as the new "PR guy" on 15 July 2014.
3.33 When someone asks how to find Bitfinex on the Hong Kong Money Service Operator Register, Devasini says: "look for Renrenbee Limited..."
3.4 In response to a question about Bitfinex leadership, a users says: urwhatuknow = Giancarlo Devasini, CFO of Bitfinex and unclescrooge = Raphael Nicolle, CTO of Bitfinex
3.41 Devasini says Jean Louis van der Velde CEO
3.411 aka Ludovicus Jan van der Velde
3.5 Devasini is still CFO of Bitfinex.
3.51 Jean Louis van der Velde is still CEO of Bitfinex.
3.52 Sam Bankman-Fried said of Devasini “He’s responsive 24/7, and he’s not just responsive to crises or unbelievable opportunities, he’s responsive to day-to-day operations.”
3.53 At one point in time, Bitfinex kept half its funds at Mt Gox.
3.54 Vitalik wrote a pretty good description of Bitfinex, too.
3.6 On 05 September 2014, Devasini registers Tether Holdings Limited in the British Virgin Islands with Philip Potter.
3.61 Philip Potter was trading bitcoin on Bitfinex in 2013.
3.62 Potter developed a relationship with Devasini because Devasini was super available to big customers.
3.63 In February 2014, Potter became Chief Strategy Officer at Bitfinex.
3.64 Potter's LinkedIn states that he was Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Tether from March 2014 - February 2018.
3.7 On 11 January 2015, Devasini says Realcoin became Tether.
4 REALCOIN
4.0 Realcoin was launched by Brock Pierce, Craig Sellers, and Reeve Collins.
4.1 Brock Pierce used to drive a DeLorean with the California license plate SATOSHI
4.11 He was also the star of the hit movie First Kid (the one with Sinbad).
4.112 And he was in the Mighty Ducks.
4.113 And D2
4.12 Brock Pierce was sued by three male child actors.
4.13 Internet Gaming Entertainment was founded by Brock Pierce and Alan Debonneville.
4.131 IGE sold in-game items.
4.132 Brock Pierce was CEO of Internet Gaming Entertainment.
4.133 Steve Bannon replaced Brock as CEO of Internet Gaming Entertainment.
4.134 Block One disputes that Brock Pierce is a co-founder, despite his role as CSO.
4.14 Pierce is married to Crystal Rose.
4.2 Craig Sellars's LinkedIn says he was CTO of Tether from April 2014 to May 2016.
4.21 He was also CTO of Bitfinex from January 2015 to May 2016.
4.22 The details of his life do not seem to be as remarkable as Brock Pierce's.
4.3 Reeve Collins founded Traffic Marketplace -- famous for bringing pop up ads to the internet.
4.31 Collins's LinkedIn says he was CEO of Tether from 2013 to 2015.
4.4 Realcoin had no connection to an earlier altcoin created by dolfcao called RealCoin.
4.41 dolfcao was an avid investor in such altcoins as Dragoncoin and Sexcoin.
4.5 Realcoin may have been based on Coinaaa.
4.51 Coinaaa was announced on 21 March 2014.
4.52 On 04 June 2014, Coinaaa had a buyback price of 8600 NOK.
4.6 Sometime during the summer of 2014, ownership of Realcoin changes to Tether Holdings Limited (see 3.6), but I don't have a link for this.
4.61 Tether's first tweet was on 12 November 2014 at 1:14 PM UTC-4.
4.7 On 20 November 2014 Realcoin rebranded as Tether and announced a Beta.
4.71 Reeve Collins explained the rebranding by saying: "We're not an altcoin, we're not our own blockchain. We're a service, a token that represents dollars" and also that they wanted to avoid association with earlier altcoins.
4.72 The rebranding announcement lists Bitfinex as a launch partner.
4.73 It also lists as partners: GoCoin, ZenBox, OmniWallet, HolyTransactions, and Expresscoin.
4.8 The first Tethers were minted in block 324140
4.81 These transactions used Mastercoin.
4.811 Mastercoin was launched on 31 July 2014 by J R Willet.
4.8111 aka dacoinminster
4.812 People could invest in Mastercoin by sending bitcoin to the Exodus address: 1EXoDusjGwvnjZUyKkxZ4UHEf77z6A5S4P
4.813 Brock Pierce became an investor through this avenue, and joined the Mastercoin board, and then resigned from the board on 14 July 2014.
4.82 Willet outlined the concept of Mastercoin on 06 January 2012 in what he called the Second Bitcoin Whitepaper.
4.83 Vitalik wrote a pretty good description of Mastercoin, too.
4.9 Bitfinex announces support for trading Tether (USDT).
edit@Scoresby