https://protos.com/was-tether-at-the-center-of-sam-bankman-frieds-empire/. Out of all the companies in the crypto industry, the demise of Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) crypto exchange FTX was the most likely to pull stablecoin Tether (USDT) down with it. Tether has always maintained close links with SBF’s former empire. Indeed, the vast majority of all transactions that FTX processed involved USDT.