Jan Ludovicus van der Velde

Oversaw exchange operations at Bitfinex where USDT functioned as a core intra‑exchange settlement and trading instrument. Implemented policies and technical integrations that determined how USDT balances were used for margin, lending and liquidity provisioning within order books, thereby directly shaping demand for newly issued tokens and the velocity of circulating supply on a major venue. Coordinated operational procedures with treasury and engineering teams for deposit/withdrawal flows, reconciliations and the distribution of minted tether to trading venues. Those operational responsibilities affected how quickly USDT could be injected into markets and how exchanges provisioned dollar liquidity for traders, impacting spreads, funding rates and cross‑venue flows. Was a named executive in regulatory and legal proceedings that examined the relationship between Bitfinex and Tether, and decisions made at the exchange about using USDT as a dollar substitute influenced regulatory scrutiny and subsequent operational constraints. The practical decisions regarding custody, customer balances and internal accounting were material to both market functioning and regulatory outcomes. Through leadership of a major trading venue that used USDT intensively, had a continuous, hands‑on influence over the instrument's real‑world market mechanics, making the exchange's policies and integrations a direct determinant of USDT's market liquidity and usability.