Thread by @Metabad

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:
$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!

While Jump’s crypto activities have bee 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..,

Funds and companies 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, 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 Capital is run by crypto 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,” 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.

Three Arrows receives $USDT from #Tether to an intermediary address before distributing it to trading platforms like @HuobiGlobal and @cz_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).

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_to 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_to 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

Deltec Bank and Trust’s chief exec, is a director.
Delchain,still moved huge 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.

#UK-based market maker Blockchain Access is another notable entity to have received large amounts of $USDT directly from #Tether.
#BlockchainAccess 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.
Blockchain Access’ $USDT was tracked 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).

Shilong Wang is a curiosity. 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.

I 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.

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 Japanese exchange Bitbank.

TRON’s Justin Sun @justinsuntron
Notorious marketeer and TRON founder received more Tether than any other individual In total, he’s acquired at least $200 million in USDT.

Most of the funds we’ve linked to @justinsuntron were sent throughout 2019 and 2020.

@justinsuntron 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.