Altcoins News

Story: Tether Pushes Back After U.S. Credit Rating Agency Labels USDT

By Steven Anderson

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S&P Gives USDT a “Weak” Risk Score. On Wednesday, S&P Global Ratings issued its first detailed evaluation of the world’s largest…

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CEO Paolo Ardoino Responds: “Traditional Finance Doesn’t Get It”. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino was quick to challenge S&P’s methodology, stating that the evaluation…

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Tether Defends Its Reserve Strategy. In its official statement, Tether expanded on the CEO’s comments and said S&P’s rating fails…

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Does the Rating Change Tether’s Market Standing?. Even with the S&P downgrade, USDT remains the most widely used dollar-pegged asset in the world.

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The Larger Debate: Transparency or System Mismatch?. The disagreement between S&P and Tether reflects a larger tension between the traditional…

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A fresh dispute has emerged between Tether and one of the world’s largest credit rating institutions after S&P Global Ratings assigned USDT its weakest possible stablecoin…

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On Wednesday, S&P Global Ratings issued its first detailed evaluation of the world’s largest stablecoin and concluded that USDT deserves its lowest rating: “5 (weak)”.

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According to S&P, the company’s reserve disclosures remain inconsistent, and the breakdown of assets introduces significant exposure to market volatility.

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One of the most notable figures highlighted in the report is Bitcoin’s growing share in USDT reserves. S&P estimates that Bitcoin now represents roughly 5.

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S&P also cited credit, interest-rate, and currency risks, as well as limited visibility into how custodians and counterparties involved in Tether’s reserve management are…

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Despite the critical rating, the agency acknowledged USDT’s stability in practice, noting that the token has retained its dollar peg reliably during recent periods of extreme…

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Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino was quick to challenge S&P’s methodology, stating that the evaluation relies on outdated financial models built for a banking system that operates…

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According to Ardoino, credit-rating frameworks were designed to assess institutions with slow reporting cycles and opaque balance sheets — the opposite of the transparency that…

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Ardoino also noted that the same traditional financial models once assigned strong ratings to major banks that later collapsed, implying that such risk frameworks are not…

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In his words, Tether is “overcapitalized” and operates outside the boundaries of what he described as a “broken financial system.

The Currency Analytics

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