Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino and market analysts disputed S&P Global’s downgraded rating on USDt’s (USDT) ability to maintain its peg to the US dollar, saying the rating agency did not take into account all of Tether’s assets and revenues.
Tether Group’s total assets at the end of the third quarter of 2025 totaled about $215 billion, while the stablecoin’s total liabilities totaled about $184.5 billion, according to Ardoin, which cited Tether’s third-quarter confirmation report. He added:
“Tether had about $7 billion in excess capital at the end of Q3 2025, on top of about $184.5 billion in stablecoin reserves, plus another about $23 billion in retained earnings as part of our Tether Group capital.
“S&P made the same mistake of not taking into account the group’s additional capital, nor the roughly $500 million in monthly underlying gains generated by US Treasury yields alone,” Ardoino continued.
S&P Global downgraded the dollar-pegged USDt to “weak” on Wednesday, the lowest rating on measurewhich has caused fear, uncertainty and doubt among some analysts about the company, which has become a key part of the infrastructure of the crypto market.
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Analysts debate the fundamentals of Tether’s balance sheet
Arthur Hayes, market analyst and founder of the BitMEX crypto exchange, speculated that Tether is buying large amounts of gold and BTC to compensate for the drop in revenue caused by the fall in US Treasury yields.
As the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates, gold and BTC should rise in value, Hayes said, but he also warned that a sharp correction in these assets could spell trouble for Tether.
“A roughly 30% drop in gold and BTC positions would wipe out their capital, and then USDt would be, in theory, insolvent,” he said. he said.
Joseph Ayoub, former lead digital asset analyst at financial services giant Citi, he said he spent “hundreds” of hours researching Tether as an analyst for the company and rejected Hayes’ analysis.
Tether has excess assets beyond what it reports, has an extremely lucrative business that generates billions of dollars in interest income with just 150 employees and is better collateralized than traditional banks, Ayoub said.
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