Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino and market analysts pushed again towards S&P World’s downgraded score of USDt’s (USDT) capability to keep up its US greenback peg, saying that the rankings company didn’t account for all of Tether’s belongings and revenues.
The Tether Group’s whole belongings on the finish of Q3 2025 totaled about $215 billion, whereas its whole stablecoin liabilities had been about $184.5 billion, in accordance with Ardoino, who referenced Tether’s Q3 attestation report. He added:
“Tether had, on the finish of Q3 2025, about $7 billion in extra fairness, on high of the about $184.5 billion in stablecoin reserves, plus about one other $23 billion in retained earnings as a part of our Tether Group fairness.
S&P made the identical mistake of not contemplating the extra Group Fairness, nor the roughly $500 million in month-to-month base income generated by US Treasury yields alone,” Ardoino continued.
S&P World downgraded USDt’s dollar-peg rating to “weak” on Wednesday, the bottom rating on its scale, prompting concern, uncertainty, and doubt from some analysts concerning the firm, which has change into a important piece of crypto market infrastructure.
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Analysts debate Tether’s stability sheet fundamentals
Arthur Hayes, a market analyst and founding father of the BitMEX crypto trade, speculated that Tether is buying large quantities of gold and BTC to compensate for earnings shortfalls produced by falling US Treasury yields.
Because the Federal Reserve slashes rates of interest, the gold and BTC ought to go up in worth, Hayes mentioned, however he additionally warned {that a} steep correction in these belongings may spell bother for Tether.
“A roughly 30% decline within the gold and BTC place would wipe out their fairness, after which USDt could be, in idea, bancrupt,” he said.
Joseph Ayoub, the previous lead digital asset analyst at monetary companies large Citi, said he spent “tons of” of hours researching Tether as an analyst for the corporate, and rebuffed Hayes’ evaluation.
Tether has extra belongings past what it studies, has an extremely lucrative business that generates billions of {dollars} in curiosity earnings with solely 150 workers, and is best collateralized than conventional banks, Ayoub mentioned.
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