Coinbase Director Claims Alameda Research Minted Nearly $40B Worth Of USDT

With former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison set to testify this week against his former lover and colleague Sam Bankman-Fried, more revelations about the activities of the now-defunct crypto hedge fund are emerging. One notable allegation is that the hedge fund minted nearly $40 billion Tether stablecoin (USDT).

Coinbase Director Conor Grogan, via the social media platform X, shared some of his supposed discoveries related to the operation of FTX and its sister company Alameda Research regarding the minting of USDT.

A screenshot of the on-chain data shared by Grogan revealed that Alameda Research created billions of USDT, amounting to approximately $39.55 billion, which comprised 47% of the current circulating supply of Tether, the blockchain-enabled platform behind the fiat-backed stablecoin.

Grogan's claim seemingly aligned with the previous report made by Protos, which, aside from claiming that Alameda Research is the second-biggest donor of Tether, had estimated that the crypto hedge fund minted $36.7 billion.

The Coinbase director shared that he had updated the figures previously provided by the publication with the additional wallets he uncovered.

"Onchain data shows that Alameda was responsible for minting $39.55B of USDT, a number that is 47% of Tether's circulating supply today. A previous report by Protoss estimated the number at around $36.7B; I was able to update these figures with additional wallets I found," Grocor said in an X thread, along with a screenshot of on-chain transactions.

Interestingly, Grogan used the data Bankman-Fried provided to Forbes during its annual World's Billionaires publication and discovered that the amount of minted USDT was higher than Alameda Research's asset under management (AUM) at its peak.

"If we assume all USDT redemptions from FTX were from Alameda (and not another MM) then they redeemed 3.9B of USDT (most all of it during 2 days in May during the Luna implosion)," Grogan said.

The crypto community anticipates that more revelations about Bankman-Fried and his crypto companies will be revealed this week in his ongoing fraud trial as Ellison takes the stand.

Last month, Bankman-Fried's thoughts and ramblings were shared with the public when he deliberately leaked a 15,000-word document to the New York Times.

In the document, which reportedly came with links to music and videos, high school photographs, and a screenshot from the Hollywood film "Inception," Bankman-Fried sounded anguished, but also seemed to lack personal accountability and blamed other people for what had happened.

"She continually avoided talking about risk management -- dodging my suggestions -- until it was too late," SBF said in another draft titled "Alameda's Failure to Hedge," where he cast aspersions on his former lover and EX-CEO Caroline Ellison.

"Every time that I reached out with suggestions, it just made her feel worse. I'm sure that being exes didn't help," he added.