Сергей Клименко

Pride Fighting Championships (Pride or Pride FC, founded as KRS-Pride) was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion company. Its inaugural event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997. Pride held more than sixty mixed martial arts events, broadcast to about 40 countries worldwide. Pride held the largest live MMA event audience record of 91,107 people at the Pride and K-1 co-production, Shockwave/Dynamite, held in August 2002,[2] as well as the audience record of over 67,450 people at the Pride Final Conflict 2003. For ten years PRIDE was one of the most popular MMA organizations in the world.

In March 2007, Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE) sold Pride to Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta III, co-owners of Zuffa, which, at the time, owned the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). While remaining as legally separate entities with separate managements, the two promotions were set to cooperate in a manner akin to the AFL-NFL merger. However, such an arrangement did not materialize, and in October 2007, Pride Worldwide's Japanese staff was laid off, marking the end of the organization as an active fight promoter. As a result, many of the Pride staff left to form a new organization alongside K-1 parent company Fighting and Entertainment Group. That new organization, founded in February 2008, was named Dream.

In 2015, Pride's co-founder and former president Nobuyuki Sakakibara established Rizin Fighting Federation in Japan with the same philosophy and ambition as for the defunct Pride organization.

History

The Rise

The precursors of Pride were the Japanese mixed martial arts competitions and shoot style pro wrestling promotions Shooto (founded in 1985), UWF International (founded in 1991), Pancrase (founded in 1993), and Kingdom (founded in 1997).[6][7] Pride Fighting Championships was initially conceived of in 1997, to match popular Japanese pro-wrestler Nobuhiko Takada with Rickson Gracie, the purported champion of the Gracie family of Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners, who gained popularity in Japan after winning the 1994 and 1995 Vale Tudo Japan tournaments and brutally defeating UWFi pro wrestler Yoji Anjo in a dojo storm at Rickson's gym in Los Angeles. [8] The event, held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997, and organised by Hiromichi Momose, Naoto Morishita and Nobuyuki Sakakibara from KRS (Kakutougi Revolutionary Spirits) promotion, attracted 47,000 fans, as well as Japanese mass media attention. The success of the first event enabled its promoters to hold a regular series of mixed martial arts events, and a year later in 1998, to promote a rematch between Takada and Gracie.[9] With K-1 enjoying popularity in Japan, Pride began to compete with monthly showings on Fuji Television, as well as pay per view on the newly formed satellite television channel SKY PerfecTV. Following the fourth event, the series was taken over by the Dream Stage Entertainment, formed by the members of the dissolved KRS, and it was accordingly renamed as the Pride Fighting Championships, with Morishita as its first chairman.

In 2000, Pride hosted the first Pride Grand Prix, a two-part openweight tournament held to find the "world's best fighter". The tournament was held over the course of two events, with sixteen fighters competing in an opening round and the eight winners returning three months later for the final round. The second round of the tournament marked the first time Pride was broadcast in the United States and featured American fighter Mark Coleman winning the tournament by defeating Igor Vovchanchyn in the final round. Pride would gain a fervent fanbase in the US, boosted by a highlights deal with Fox Sports Networks and regular DVD releases of Pride shows including older cards that were not initially screened outside of Japan. English-language commentary for Pride was provided by Stephen Quadros or Mauro Ranallo, with Bas Rutten or Frank Trigg providing analysis.

In August 2002, Pride teamed up with Japan's leading kickboxing and fight promotion, K-1, and held the world's biggest fight event, Shockwave (known as Pride/K-1 Dynamite!! in Japan), which attracted over 71,000 fans. On January 13, 2003, the Pride MMA production was thrown into turmoil when DSE president Naoto Morishita was found dead hanging by his neck in his hotel room, apparently after his mistress told him she wanted to end their affair.[10] One of the stories go that Fedor Emelianenko was held at gunpoint to resign with Pride Nobuyuki Sakakibara later assumed the presidency, later joined by Takada as a general manager.

In 2003 Pride introduced the Bushido series of events, which focused mainly, but not exclusively, on the lighter weight classes of lightweights and welterweights. The Bushido series also stressed a faster pace, with bouts consisting of only one ten-minute round and one five-minute round, as well as quicker referee intervention of stalling tactics, using the new "yellow card" system of purse deduction.

Also in 2003, Pride returned to the tournament format, with a middleweight grand prix spanning two events, Pride Total Elimination 2003 and Final Conflict 2003. The format was expanded to three events in 2004, adding Critical Countdown 2004 as the second round. Pride would go on to hold annual tournaments, a heavyweight tournament in 2004, a middleweight in 2005, and an openweight in 2006.

A Pride Fighting Championships fighter introduction in 2005

In 2006 DSE announced it would showcase Pride alongside the Ultimate Fighting Championship, North America's largest MMA event, and would be integrating their fighters, including Wanderlei Silva and Kazuyuki Fujita, at a UFC MMA show in November. However, Dana White, speaking on behalf of Zuffa then commented that the announced bout between Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva was unlikely to happen because "the Japanese are very hard to do business with". This statement was likely due to the failure of previous attempts between Zuffa and DSE to organize a fighter exchange agreement. Specifically after entering Liddell in Pride's 2003 middleweight tournament, which was also with the intention of Liddell eventually fighting Silva, which fell through when Liddell lost in the semi-finals to Quinton Jackson (Jackson subsequently lost to Silva by technical knockout in the finals.)

Pride continued to enjoy success, holding roughly ten events per year, and even out-drawing rival K-1 at the annual New Year's Eve show Pride Shockwave 2005. On October 21, 2006, Pride held its first MMA event in US, Pride 32: The Real Deal took place in front of an audience of 11,727 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Paradise, Nevada, and was the first Pride event to be held outside Japan.

On June 5, 2006, the Fuji Network announced that they were terminating their television contract with Pride Fighting Championships effective immediately due to a breach of contract by DSE. This left Pride with only SKY PerfecTV, a pay-per-view carrier, as a television outlet in Japan, and the loss of the substantial revenues from the Fuji deal threatened its sustainability. Dream was surrounded by speculation in the Japanese media, especially in the Japanese tabloid Shukan Gendai, that it may be a front for the notorious yakuza crime organization. Dream responded to the loss by stating they will continue with their schedule as currently planned, including an event in Las Vegas, Pride 33: Second Coming which took place on February 24, 2007, Pride's second event outside Japan.

In late 2006, DSE hinted at plans for Mike Tyson to fight in the organization's New Year's Eve show. Tyson was to face a Pride fighter under boxing rules. Since Tyson is not allowed to fight in Japan because of his criminal record, Pride wanted to stage the fight in an alternate country, possibly Macau, China. The fight would be broadcast live on large television screens in the Saitama Super Arena, where the regular mixed martial arts bouts were held. The fight did not occur, however.

On November 29, 2006, Pride announced the discontinuation of its Bushido events, with the intention of integrating the matches from lighter weight classes, mainly featured in Bushido, into regular Pride events. Pride also announced that future Grand Prix tournaments would take place on a four-year weight class cycle, with one Grand Prix per year. The first expected one, a lightweight Grand Prix, ended up being cancelled.

The Fall

On Tuesday, March 27, 2007, Pride executives Nobuyuki Sakakibara and Nobuhiko Takada announced that Station Casinos Inc. magnate Lorenzo Fertitta, co-owner of Zuffa and its subsidiary MMA production Ultimate Fighting Championship, had made a deal to acquire all assets of Pride Fighting Championships from Dream Stage Entertainment after Pride 34: Kamikaze in a deal reportedly worth USD$65 million, though the figure was not publicly disclosed. Managing the assets under the newly created Pride FC Worldwide Holdings, LLC, including their video library and the contracts of the fighters currently on the Pride roster, the new management company had originally planned to continue to promote Pride events in Japan and keep to its previously announced schedule. Lorenzo Fertitta announced they planned to operate Pride separately from Zuffa's two MMA brands, the UFC and WEC, planned on having occasional crossover shows and matches, pitting fighters from Pride against fighters "from the UFC," using the metaphor of the AFL-NFL merger to compare the situation.

Subsequent remarks by Zuffa spokesperson Dana White however cast doubt as to what the new owners would actually do with Pride. After the sale officially closed on May 25, 2007, White remarked that he planned on bringing Pride's biggest names into UFC competition instead of keeping them in Pride and that they were still deciding on what to do with Pride itself. In later comments made in August 2007, White expressed doubt that Zuffa can resurrect Pride in Japan, claiming, "I've [or, we] pulled everything out of the trick box that I can and I can't get a TV deal over there with Pride. I don't think they want us there. I don't think they want me there."

On October 4, 2007, Pride Worldwide closed its Japanese office, laying off 20 people who were working there since the closing of DSE.

Multimedia

Video

The final Pride events have been released on DVD under the Pride Worldwide label.

Past fights from Pride are shown on Best of Pride Fighting Championships. The program premiered January 15, 2010, on Spike TV. The program's host is Kenda Perez.

Video games

Pride Fighting Championships released two licensed video games during its time in business, as well as being featured in an Ultimate Fighting Championship game in 2012.

The first game, Pride FC: Fighting Championships was developed by Anchor Inc. and released by THQ for the PlayStation 2 in February 2003 in Japan and North America and April 2003 in Europe. The game received an aggregate score of 73/100 on Metacritic, based on 19 critic reviews.

The second game, PrideGP Grand Prix 2003 was developed and released by Capcom also for the PlayStation 2 in November 2003, but was only released in Japan.

Pride Fighting Championships was also featured in the video game UFC Undisputed 3. Featuring main Pride event rules and 33 Pride fighters (not counting the Pride alumni on the UFC roster to date), the mode also has commentary provided by Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros, with Lenne Hardt as the English Ring Announcer.

Rules

Pride's rules differed between main Pride events and Bushido events. It was announced on November 29, 2006, that Bushido events would be discontinued.

Match length

Pride matches consisted of three rounds; the first lasted ten minutes and the second and third each lasted five minutes. Intermissions between each round were two minutes long. In Pride events held in the United States, NSAC Unified MMA rules were used: non-title matches consisted of three five-minute rounds and title matches consisted of five five-minute rounds, both with 60-second intermissions between rounds.

When two rounds of a Grand Prix took place on the same night, Grand Prix bouts consisted of two rounds, the first lasting ten minutes and the second lasting five. Intermissions between each round remained two minutes long.

Bellator MMA (formerly Bellator Fighting Championships) is an American mixed martial arts promotion founded in 2008 and based in Santa Monica, California owned and operated as a subsidiary of ViacomCBS. It is one of the largest combat sport promotions in the world and the second largest in the United States. The promotion takes its name from bellātor, the Latin word for "warrior".

Bellator's first event was held in 2009, and the promotion has since held over 200 "numbered" events as of December 2019. The promotion features notable talents such as Vadim Nemkov, Kyoji Horiguchi, Yoel Romero, Yaroslav Amosov, Anthony Johnson, Patrício Pitbull, A. J. McKee, Michael Page, Douglas Lima, and Sergio Pettis. Famed fighters such as Eddie Alvarez, Michael Chandler, Ben Askren, Rory MacDonald, Ryan Bader, Gegard Mousasi, Cris Cyborg and Fedor Emelianenko have also found success under the Bellator umbrella.

History

Bellator was founded in 2008 by Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney. Under Rebney's ownership, Bellator events were structured around single-elimination tournaments that awarded the winner a check for $100,000 and a guaranteed world-title fight against a current Bellator world champion in the applicable weight class.[citation needed]

In December 2011, Viacom purchased majority ownership of Bellator.

In May 2014, Bellator hosted the company's inaugural pay-per-view event from the Landers Center.

In June 2014, it was announced that both Chairman/CEO Bjorn Rebney and President Tim Danaher were relieved of their positions. Rebney would be succeeded by Strikeforce founder Scott Coker. Under Coker, Bellator would drop its season-long tournament format in early 2015, transitioning into more of a traditional, single-fight event schedule. Since 2018, Bellator hosts divisional grand-prix tournaments.

Broadcast partners

Since the fourth season in 2011, Bellator cards have been predominantly broadcast on Viacom-owned networks in the United States. Beginning in January 2013, Bellator telecasts were moved from MTV2 to Spike (later relaunched as Paramount Network in 2018) following the end of the latter channel's partnership with the UFC.

In September 2013, Bellator signed a multi-year partnership agreement with Fox Sports Latin America.

On June 26, 2018, Bellator announced a five-year streaming deal with DAZN, covering the U.S. and other markets served by the sports-oriented streaming service. Since Bellator 206, this includes all events aired by Paramount Network, as well as seven exclusive cards per-year.

In March 2020, Bellator announced they had signed a deal with ESPN Brasil to broadcast events in the country.

Following Viacom's re-merger with CBS Corporation in 2019, CBS Sports Network debuted the recap series, Bellator MMA: Recharged, on April 25, 2020. On September 11, 2020, it was announced that Bellator cards would move to CBS Sports Network starting October 1, with preliminary bouts to stream on YouTube and CBSSports.com.

Five months later, on February 9, 2021, it was announced that Bellator events would air exclusively on Showtime beginning with Bellator 255 on April 2, 2021. The following day, it was announced that the BBC would also broadcast Bellator events on BBC iPlayer in the United Kingdom.

Rankings

Main article: Bellator MMA Rankings

In February 2021, Scott Coker announced that the organization will incorporate official rankings beginning from Bellator 255 in April.

M-1 Global (Mixfight-1) or MMA-1 (Mixed martial arts-1) is a mixed martial arts promotion based in St. Petersburg, Russia which organizes between 10 and 20 competitions per year.

It hosted its first major show (rather than co-promoting with other organizations) entitled M-1 Global Presents Breakthrough on August 28, 2009 at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas.

M-1, in 2009, signed a contract to co-promote with Explosion Entertainment.

UFC partnership

On July 18, 2018, it was announced that M-1 has agreed in a partnership with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) where M-1 Global serves as the farm league for the UFC to scout Russian fighters for the UFC and involves in preparation and organizes new shows in Russia. Part of the deal also allows M-1 champions to have the opportunity to sign with the UFC.

M-1 Challenge

Main article: M-1 Challenge

M-1 Challenge is a competition organized with a series of events held in many places around the world. The events are broadcast in over 100 countries, mainly Russia, Europe and the FSU countries.

M-1 Selection

Main article: M-1 Selection

The M-1 Selection is a MMA competition where the next generation of fighters are given the opportunity to showcase their skills on the world stage with fighters being eliminated after only one loss; victory will advance the winning fighters throughout the tournament and earn them a trip to the championship event where they will compete for a “M-1 Selection” title.[7]

Absolute Championship Akhmat (ACA), formerly known as Absolute Championship Berkut (ACB), is a Russian mixed martial arts, kickboxing and brazilian jiu-jitsu organization and one of the leading promotions in Europe. To date, most events have been hosted in Grozny, Russia. ACA has also held events in other Russian cities, as well as in Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Scotland, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

Absolute Championship Berkut

ACB was founded by Mairbek Khasiev, a citizen of Chechnya. Khasiev is a doctor and combat sport enthusiast. In 2009, he founded the Berkut Fight Club in Grozny which helped young fighters get the opportunity to compete at the highest level.

Several fighters who were successful in ACB have gone on to sign with more well known promotions such as the UFC. ACB had its own fight team, the Fight Club Berkut, which consisted of some of the promotion's elite fighters, such as Beslan Isaev, Magomed Bibulatov, Musa Khamanaev and Aslambek Saidov. ACB co-operated with other promotions in Europe by exchanging fighters, for example KSW and The Cage. ACB ran the majority of its shows live on a variety of TV networks (Match TV, Polsat Sport) throughout Europe. The promotion ran its shows live internationally on its Facebook page.

International Expansion

The 2017 campaign featured 27 events spanning across thirteen countries, including the United States, Austria, Poland, England, Tajikistan, Belarus, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Australia and Russia.

TECH-Krep FC purchase

On September 12, 2018, Mairbek Khasiev revealed that Absolute Championship Berkut had purchased TECH-Krep FC.[2] Khasiev went on to explain that TECH-Krep FC would cease operation and cancel their October 26th event, and that former Tech-Krep FC head Alexey Yatsenko would become the president of ACB.

WFCA acquisition and integration

On November 28, 2018, the Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov announced that the Absolute Championship Berkut (ACB) and the World Fighting Championship Akhmat (WFCA) would merge to form a single promotion.[3]

US Sanctions

On December 20, 2020, the U.S. Department of Treasury announced sanctions against ACA and Akhmat MMA due to their ownership by Kadyrov. Due to this, no American citizen or company can do business with them, meaning all American fighters could face fines or jail time if they fight for the organization. [4] Brett Cooper was the first fighter to pull out of his fight at ACA 116: Froes vs Balaev due to the sanctions.[5]

Roster

Main article: List of current ACA fighters

List of events

Main articles: List of Absolute Championship Akhmat events and 2021 in Absolute Championship Akhmat

Micro Genius (Chinese: 小天才; pinyin: Xiǎo Tiān Cái; lit. 'Small Genius') is a brand name used for Famicom clone consoles marketed in several countries around the world, particularly in areas where Nintendo consoles were not readily available, including the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South America, Eastern Europe, South Africa and East Asian countries excluding Japan and South Korea. The name was initially and most famously used by TXC Corporation for its range of Taiwanese-made Famicom clones, software and accessories, but later passed to other companies and remains in use today on rebranded Chinese Famicom clones and LCD games.

In some countries - such as Malaysia - during the early 1990s, Micro Genius Famicom clones were the most popular game consoles,[1] mirroring the popularity enjoyed several years earlier by Nintendo's official Famicom and NES in Japan and North America. In Russia certain models of Micro Genius were sold under the Dendy brand, and in Poland one version, the IQ-502, was released as a Pegasus console - both of which were also the most popular consoles in their respective countries - while in Colombia and certain other Latin American countries they were sold as Nichi-Man. Micro Genius consoles were also sighted being played by children in a North Korean children's camp in 2008,[2] a country which few other video games have reached. However, they rarely reached markets where Nintendo was more recognisable, as they often infringed on Nintendo's patents in those regions.[3]

Consoles and accessories

The IQ201, an early Micro Genius console.

IQ-901

There are several models of the Micro Genius, but the Micro Genius IQ-501 was particularly popular until the official introduction of competitors like Sega and Nintendo in the regions where it was sold. The games came in form of 60-pin cartridges, identical to those of the Japanese Famicom, which were inserted from the top into a cartridge port. A standard Micro Genius console package came with two wired controllers and sometimes a light gun. Some models also used an RF antenna to transmit signals wirelessly to a receiver inserted in the TV. Later incarnations came with IR wireless controllers.

Micro Genius consoles include:

IQ-201 - an early model resembling the Famicom, with hard-wired controllers

IQ-301 - similar to the IQ-201, with the addition of turbo switches

IQ-501 - introduces detachable controllers, sold as Dendy Classic in Russia

IQ-502 - sold as Dendy Classic II in Russia and Pegasus IQ-502 in Poland

IQ-701 - resembles the international Nintendo Entertainment System

IQ-901 - an early handheld TV game

IQ-1000 - built-in infra-red receiver, comes with one wireless controller and one wired

IQ-2000 - similar to the IQ-1000 but comes with two wireless controllers

Accessories for other consoles were also sold under the Micro Genius brand, including lightguns and controllers for the original NES, and wireless controllers for the Mega Drive and SNES.

Games

Most versions of Micro Genius are compatible with Famicom cartridges but require a 72-pin to 60-pin adapter to play NES games, although certain models were produced in both 60-pin Famicom and 72-pin NES versions. It was often sold with cartridges containing multiple games. The 60-pin Famicom versions also generally supported expansion audio chips such as Konami's VRC6 and VRC7 making them a more affordable alternative for those in Europe wanting to play Famicom games with expansion audio without making modifications to the console as long as they don't mind 50 Hz slowdown.

A series of original Micro Genius games, such as Chinese Chess and Thunder Warrior, was produced in both Famicom and NES format, but unlicensed copies of Japanese games remained more popular in the countries where the console was sold.

Tinkoff Bank (Russian: Тинькофф банк), formerly Tinkoff Credit Systems (Russian: Тинькофф Кредитные Системы) is a Russian commercial bank based in Moscow and founded by Oleg Tinkov in 2006.[6] The bank does not have branches and is considered a neobank.[7] As of 2016, Tinkoff Bank has a credit rating of B+ on the Fitch Ratings and B2 on the Moody's Rating,[8][9] and is the second largest provider of credit cards in Russia.[10] Tinkoff is the world's largest digital bank, as measured by number of customers.[11] In October 2021, Central Bank of Russia added “Tinkoff bank” in the list of Systemically important credit institutions as a result of bank`s overweight development and customer base[12]

History

Entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov founded Tinkoff Credit Systems in 2006, after working with consultants from Boston Consulting Group to see if a bank without branches could work in Russia.[13][14][15] Tinkov invested around $70 million in the bank, and based the bank on the American Capital One bank; Tinkov took over the Khimmashbank corporate bank in Moscow.[16][17][7] In 2007, the bank received investment from Goldman Sachs.[11] In 2013, Tinkoff was listed on the London Stock Exchange, raising $1.1 billion,[18][13] and in the same year, the bank was named the Bank of the Year by the Financial Times' Banker magazine.[10]

In 2013, a Russian named Dmitry Agarkov attempted to sue the bank for 24 million rubles ($724,000); Agarkov had edited a 2008 credit card agreement with the bank, and his edits had been accepted by the bank. The legal action was later withdrawn by both the parties after an undisclosed settlement was reached.[19][20][21][22]

In 2015, the bank was officially renamed Tinkoff Bank,[23] and was also named the Best Internet Retail Bank in Russia by the Global Finance magazine.[10]

In December 2019, Tinkoff launched Russia's first fully digital ATM, without keyboard or the ability to print receipts.[24] In the 2019 financial year, Tinkoff announced revenue increases of 33%.[24] Tinkoff Bank has updated its app to include cinema and hotel tickets, as well as booking holidays through the bank's subsidiary, Tinkoff Travel.[11] In March 2020, shares in the bank fell after Oleg Tinkov, who owns a 40% share in the bank, was indicted by the US Department of Justice.[25][26] Also in 2020, the bank helped fund German mobile banking startup Vivid Money, which is supported by solarisBank and Visa.[27]

After the sale of part of the stake and the conversion of the remaining 35% into ordinary shares in early 2021, Oleg Tinkov ceased to be the majority shareholder of the TCS Group.[28]

In February 2021, Tinkov Bank took first place in the ranking of the Top 50 Russian banks according to The Banker. The position is due to the increasing role of online banking during the Covid-19.[29]

29 March 2021 Tinkoff Bank filed a lawsuit in the Moscow Arbitration Court. The bank accused the mobile operator MTS of unfairly setting tariffs for sending SMS and demanded compensation in the amount of more than 1 billion rubles. MTS disagrees with the accusations.[30] A similar claim, but for 436.8 million rubles, against another operator of the Russian "big three" company, VimpelCom, was filed at the end of May.[31]

In the April rating The World’s Best Banks from Forbes, Tinkoff Bank was ranked fifth among Russian banks.[32]

In October 2021, Tinkoff launched e-commerce division (part of Tinkoff Business), headed by Ilya Kretov, new arrival and ex-CEO at eBay Russia.[33]

In October 2021, Central Bank of Russia granted the license to “Tinkoff Capital” asset management company, the part of “Tinkoff bank”, allowing portfolio management. Since its foundation in June 2019, “Tinkoff Capital” has being permitted to manage investment, private pension and private equity funds. As per October 2021, net capital of “Tinkoff Capital” are estimated at 30 billion dollars.[34] In the same month, TCS Group, managing company of "Tinkoff Bank", founded "Tinkoff Global PTE" in Singapore, focused on markets of South-East Asia according to group`s international expantion strategy.[35]

What Is FTX Token (FTT)?

FTT is the native cryptocurrency token of the crypto derivatives trading platform FTX that launched on May 8, 2019.

The team behind FTX comprises some of the largest crypto traders over the past few years who, having found issues with most mainstream crypto futures exchanges, decided to launch their own platform. FTX claims that it stands out due to such features as clawback prevention, a centralized collateral pool and universal stablecoin settlement.

In regards to clawback prevention, a significant amount of customer funds on other derivative exchanges have been claimed by socialized losses. FTX reduces this by using a three-tiered liquidation model.

On existing crypto futures exchanges, the collateral is fragmented across separate token wallets; this can be difficult for traders as it prevents positions from getting liquidated. On the other hand, FTX derivatives are stablecoin-settled and only require one universal margin wallet.

Another feature of the FTT are leveraged tokens, which allow traders to put leveraged positions without the need to trade on margin. If a trader wants to short Bitcoin with 3x leverage, they can simply buy a 3x short Bitcoin leveraged token on FTX. These tokens are ERC20-compatible and can be listed on any spot exchange. FTX currently offers XRP, BNB, TRX, BTC, ETH, EOS, USDT and LEO leveraged tokens.

Who Are the Founders of FTX Token?

The FTX Token or FTT was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang.

Sam Bankman-Fried is the co-founder and chief executive officer at FTX: Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange. He is also the CEO of Almeda Research and worked as a director of development at the Centre for Effective Altruism. He was also a trader at Jane Street Capital from 2014 to 2017.

Bankman-Fried studied physics and has a bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Gary Wang is the co-founder and chief technology officer at FTX: Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange. He is also the chief technology officer at Almeda Research. Before this, he worked as a software engineer, after moving up from a software engineering intern at Google. He was also a software engineer intern at Facebook.

He has a Bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

What Makes FTX Token Unique?

FTX is backed by Almeda Research, which is known as one of the leading companies in crypto trading and one of the largest liquidity providers.

As such, FTX is a product designed by professionals with confirmed expertise in the industry. They cover multiple services: from collateral to maintenance margin to liquidation processes and product listing. FTX also claims to be focused on fast development cycles, allowing them to deploy crypto trading systems at a competitive pace.

What Is Tether (USDT)?

USDT is a stablecoin (stable-value cryptocurrency) that mirrors the price of the U.S. dollar, issued by a Hong Kong-based company Tether. The token’s peg to the USD is achieved via maintaining a sum of commercial paper, fiduciary deposits, cash, reserve repo notes, and treasury bills in reserves that is equal in USD value to the number of USDT in circulation.

Originally launched in July 2014 as Realcoin, a second-layer cryptocurrency token built on top of Bitcoin’s blockchain through the use of the Omni platform, it was later renamed to USTether, and then, finally, to USDT. In addition to Bitcoin’s, USDT was later updated to work on the Ethereum, EOS, Tron, Algorand, and OMG blockchains.

The stated purpose of USDT is to combine the unrestricted nature of cryptocurrencies — which can be sent between users without a trusted third-party intermediary — with the stable value of the US dollar.

Who Are The Founders Of Tether?

USDT — or as it was known at the time, Realcoin — was launched in 2014 by Brock Pierce, Reeve Collins and Craig Sellars.

Brock Pierce is a well-known entrepreneur who has co-founded a number of high-profile projects in the crypto and entertainment industries. In 2013, he co-founded a venture capital firm Blockchain Capital, which by 2017 had raised over $80 million in funding. In 2014, Pierce became the director of the Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit established to help improve and promote Bitcoin. Pierce has also co-founded Block.one, the company behind EOS, one of the largest cryptocurrencies on the market.

Reeve Collins was the CEO of Tether for the first two years of its existence. Prior to that, he had co-founded several successful companies, such as the online ad network Traffic Marketplace, entertainment studio RedLever and gambling website Pala Interactive. As of 2020, Collins is heading SmarMedia Technologies, a marketing and advertising tech company.

Other than working on Tether, Craig Sellars has been a member of the Omni Foundation for over six years. Its Omni Protocol allows users to create and trade smart-contract based properties and currencies on top of Bitcoin’s blockchain. Sellars has also worked in several other cryptocurrency companies and organizations, such as Bitfinex, Factom, Synereo and the MaidSafe Foundation.

What Makes Tether Unique?

USDT’s unique feature is the fact that its value is guaranteed by Tether to remain pegged to the U.S. dollar. According to Tether, whenever it issues new USDT tokens, it allocates the same amount of USD to its reserves, thus ensuring that USDT is fully backed by cash and cash equivalents.

The famously high volatility of the crypto markets means that cryptocurrencies can rise or fall by 10-20% within a single day, making them unreliable as a store of value. USDT, on the other hand, is protected from these fluctuations.

This property makes USDT a safe haven for crypto investors: during periods of high volatility, they can park their portfolios in Tether without having to completely cash out into USD. In addition, USDT provides a simple way to transact a U.S. dollar equivalent between regions, countries and even continents via blockchain — without having to rely on a slow and expensive intermediary, like a bank or a financial services provider.

However, over the years, there have been a number of controversies regarding the validity of Tether’s claims about their USD reserves, at times disrupting USDT’s price, which went down as low as $0.88 at one point in its history. Many have raised concerns about the fact that Tether’s reserves have never been fully audited by an independent third party.

Related Pages:

Looking for market and blockchain data for BTC? Visit our block explorer.

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How Many Tether (USDT) Coins Are There In Circulation?

There is no hard-coded limit on the total supply of USDT — given the fact that it belongs to a private company, theoretically, its issuance is limited only by Tether’s own policies. However, because Tether claims that every single USDT is supposed to be backed by one U.S. dollar, the amount of tokens is limited by the company’s actual cash reserves.

Moreover, Tether does not disclose its issuance schedules ahead of time. Instead, they provide daily transparency reports, listing the total amount of their asset reserves and liabilities, the latter corresponding to the amount of USDT in circulation.

As of September 2020, there are over 14.4 billion USDT tokens in circulation, which are backed by $14.6 billion in assets, according to Tether.

How Is the Tether Network Secured?

USDT does not have its own blockchain — instead, it operates as a second-layer token on top of other cryptocurrencies’ blockchains: Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS, Tron, Algorand, Bitcoin Cash and OMG, and is secured by their respective hashing algorithms.

Where Can You Buy Tether (USDT)?

It is possible to buy Tether / USDT on a large number of cryptocurrency exchanges. In fact, USDT’s average daily trading volume is often on par or even exceeds that of Bitcoin. It is especially prominent on those exchanges where fiat-to-crypto trading pairs are unavailable, as it provides a viable alternative to USD. Here are some of the most popular exchanges that support Tether trading:

Binance

OKEx

HitBTC

Huobi Global

Our most recent articles about Tether:

Investing in Stablecoins: The New-Age Inflation Hedge

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