Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino and market analysts pushed again towards S&P International’s downgraded score of USDt’s (USDT) means to take care of 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 have 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 prime 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 earnings generated by US Treasury yields alone,” Ardoino continued.
S&P International downgraded USDt’s dollar-peg score 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 vital piece of crypto market infrastructure.
Associated: Tether to speed up push into commodity lending with money, USDt credit score
Analysts debate Tether’s stability sheet fundamentals
Arthur Hayes, a market analyst and founding father of the BitMEX crypto alternate, speculated that Tether is shopping for massive portions of gold and BTC to compensate for revenue 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 hassle for Tether.
“A roughly 30% decline within the gold and BTC place would wipe out their fairness, after which USDt can be, in idea, bancrupt,” he mentioned.
Joseph Ayoub, the previous lead digital asset analyst at monetary companies big Citi, mentioned he spent “a whole bunch” of hours researching Tether as an analyst for the corporate, and rebuffed Hayes’ evaluation.
Tether has extra belongings past what it experiences, has a particularly profitable enterprise that generates billions of {dollars} in curiosity revenue with solely 150 staff, and is best collateralized than conventional banks, Ayoub mentioned.
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