Tether’s newest Q3 2025 attestation reveals the stablecoin big now holds roughly $22.8 billion in gold and Bitcoin, a diversification technique that BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes warns might set off USDT’s collapse.
CEO Paolo Ardoino introduced the corporate maintains “a multi-billion-dollar extra reserve buffer and an general proprietary Group fairness approaching $30 billion,” however Hayes argues this diversification masks harmful publicity to risky belongings.
Hayes contends Tether is positioning for Federal Reserve price cuts that will crush their Treasury earnings.
The Tether people are within the early innings of operating an enormous rate of interest commerce. How I learn this audit is that they assume the Fed will minimize charges which crushes their curiosity earnings. In response, they’re shopping for gold and $BTC that ought to in principle moon as the value of cash falls.… pic.twitter.com/ZGhQRP4SVF
— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) November 29, 2025
“The Tether people are within the early innings of operating an enormous rate of interest commerce,” Hayes wrote, including that “a roughly 30% decline within the gold + BTC place would wipe out their fairness, after which USDT can be in principle bancrupt.”
Analyst Paul Barron famous that for each 25 foundation level Fed lower, USDT’s annual curiosity earnings drops roughly $318 million based mostly on its $127 billion Treasury publicity.
Tether CEO Fires Again with Detailed Monetary Disclosures
In a latest X Put up, Ardoino swiftly countered Hayes’s insolvency claims with complete information.
“Tether had (at finish of Q3 2025) ~7B in extra fairness (on high of the ~184.5B stablecoin reserves) + one other ~23B in retained earnings as a part of our Tether Group fairness,” the CEO defined.
re: Tether FUD
From newest attestation announcement (Q3 2025):
"Tether will proceed to keep up a multi-billion-dollar extra reserve buffer and an general proprietary Group fairness approaching $30 billion."
Tether had (at finish of Q3 2025) ~7B in extra fairness (on high of the…— Paolo Ardoino
(@paoloardoino) November 30, 2025
Tether Group’s complete belongings attain roughly $215 billion in opposition to $184.5 billion in stablecoin liabilities, with gold and Bitcoin representing simply 12.6% of reserves.
The CEO accused critics of intentionally misrepresenting Tether’s place.
“S&P made the identical mistake of not contemplating the extra Group Fairness nor the ~500M in month-to-month base earnings generated by U.S Treasury yields alone,” Ardoino said, suggesting “some influencers are both dangerous at math or have the inducement to push our rivals.”
His protection comes after S&P International downgraded USDT’s peg-stability score from 4 to five on November 26, citing elevated publicity to “high-risk“ belongings and “persistent gaps in disclosure.“
Business Veterans Dismantle Tether’s Insolvency Claims
Joseph Ayoub, former head of digital asset analysis at Citi, famous that Tether’s disclosed belongings don’t symbolize all company holdings.
“Their disclosed belongings =/ all company belongings,” he defined, noting Tether maintains a separate fairness stability sheet comprising mining operations and company reserves that aren’t publicly reported.
I spent 100’s of hours writing analysis on tether for @Citi. @CryptoHayes missed a couple of key factors.
1) 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐬 =/ 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐬
When tether generates $ they’ve a separate fairness stability sheet which they don’t… https://t.co/pHSRr245Up— Joseph (@JosephA140) November 30, 2025
With roughly $120 billion in interest-yielding Treasuries producing roughly 4% returns since 2023, Tether produces round $10 billion in liquid revenue yearly with simply 150 workers.
Ayoub famous that banks function on considerably decrease fractional reserves of 5-15% in liquid belongings in comparison with Tether’s overcollateralized construction.
His conclusion, “Tether isn’t going bancrupt, fairly the other; they personal a cash printing machine.“
S&P Downgrade Sparks Fierce Business Backlash
Ardoino responded defiantly to S&P’s score motion and recurrent criticism of Tether’s operational mannequin.
“We put on your loathing with delight,” the CEO declared, positioning Tether as “the primary overcapitalized firm within the monetary business, with no poisonous reserves” that proves “the standard monetary system is so damaged that it’s turning into feared by the emperors with no garments.”
He challenged banks to publish their reserve ratios, suggesting they doubtless encompass “3 olives and a half chewed gum.“
Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski added that “The S&P solely assaults Tether, as a result of Tether is difficult and beating the outdated monetary guard at their very own recreation.”
The S&P solely assaults Tether, as a result of Tether is difficult and beating the outdated monetary guard at their very own recreation.
These outdated company entities can’t deal with firms like Tether & Rumble taking their market share — their solely recourse is to assault us as a result of they’re dropping. https://t.co/UUbaYpXAUq— Chris Pavlovski
(@chrispavlovski) November 26, 2025
The assaults stunned many, contemplating USDT maintained its peg by the 2018 crash, 2022 Terra/Luna collapse, and 2023 banking disaster.
But the downgrade carries severe implications.
With a “5” score and MiCA rules prohibiting USDT from EU exchanges, no main institutional fund can legally maintain the stablecoin.
This might favor rivals like Circle’s USDC, PayPal’s PYUSD, or tokenized fiat alternate options, doubtlessly shifting liquidity away from an organization that generated extra internet revenue than BlackRock final 12 months and is tipped to surpass Saudi Aramco in profitability.
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