Crypto’s Most Trusted Stablecoin Given Lowest Attainable ‘Weak’ Ranking By Main TradFi Company

Tether’s USDT, the dominant dollar-pegged stablecoin with practically $185 billion in circulation, simply took successful from conventional finance score powerhouse S&P International, because it downgraded its evaluation of USDT’s skill to take care of its peg from 4 to five, which is the weakest rating on its related scale.

S&P initially rolled out its stablecoin score framework in 2023 to gauge dangers like liquidity, governance, and asset backing within the rising sector. Based on their latest report on USDT, Tether’s reserves have shifted towards extra unstable holdings over the previous yr. These perceived riskier property, equivalent to bitcoin, gold, secured loans, and company bonds, now make up 24% of the reserve combine, up from 17% in 2024.

Certainly one of S&P’s sharpest criticisms in its downgrade of USDT lies in its rising reliance on bitcoin specifically as a reserve asset, now comprising 5.6% of the backing, which is effectively above the three.9% reserve buffer Tether itself flagged in its newest quarterly report (PDF). Based on S&P, this publicity amplifies dangers tied to bitcoin’s infamous volatility.

S&P additionally sees critical points relating to transparency at Tether, because the stablecoin issuer’s attestations supply little greater than high-level snapshots, with zero granularity on who holds these property, how they’re custodied, or what counterparties lurk within the shadows.

That stated, Tether’s reserves nonetheless lean closely on short-term U.S. Treasuries and money equivalents, accounting for 75% of the reserves. Regardless of the alleged purple flags from S&P, USDT has held its $1 peg by way of lots of crypto’s wild rides over time, notably dealing with billions in redemptions with out a hitch through the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.

A Tether spokesperson instructed Reuters the corporate “strongly disagrees” with S&P’s evaluation, which makes use of an outdated mannequin that ignores USDT’s observe report and position as very important infrastructure in rising markets.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino went further on X, framing the downgrade as a badge of honor: Tether “wears S&P’s loathing with delight,” thriving as an “overcapitalized” outsider to a flawed legacy system. “The classical score fashions constructed for legacy monetary establishments, traditionally led non-public and institutional traders to take a position their wealth into corporations that regardless of being attributed funding grade scores collapsed,” Ardoino added.

In another post, Ardoino pointed to Tether’s newest attestation announcement, the place the corporate additionally claimed an extra reserve buffer approaching $30 billion; nevertheless, this isn’t explicitly a part of USDT’s present reserves.

In one other publish, Ardoino referenced S&P’s failures through the 2008 monetary disaster, which had been portrayed by a blind lady within the related movie The Huge Brief. S&P paid a $1.375 billion settlement in a associated case with the U.S. Division of Justice relating to allegations that the scores company had defrauded traders with its scores of monetary merchandise within the lead as much as the housing disaster. Notably, Bitcoin itself was initially launched in January 2009, virtually as a direct response to the collapse of belief concerned within the monetary disaster.

S&P be likehttps://t.co/gGBOPhrVFX

— Paolo Ardoino 🤖 (@paoloardoino) November 27, 2025

Simply weeks earlier than scrutinizing Tether, S&P also slapped a speculative ‘B-‘ issuer credit rating on bitcoin treasury company Strategy, highlighting the agency’s $80 billion-plus bitcoin hoard as a vulnerability that would cripple debt funds amid market plunges. The company’s outlook stays steady for now, however it flags Technique’s damaging money circulate and bitcoin focus as purple flags, very similar to the volatility dangers baked into USDT’s reserves.

Whereas S&P sees points with Tether and Technique utilizing bitcoin as a reserve asset, many different well-known establishments, equivalent to the Harvard University Endowment and the state of Texas, are shopping for the crypto asset to carry for the long run and discover it to be helpful as an apolitical, digital retailer of worth.

It must also be famous that S&P is essentially centered on stablecoin issuers’ skill to redeem tokens for {dollars} of their assessments, so an asset like USDT the place the issuer is working extra like a financial institution issuing its personal non-public foreign money doesn’t essentially match the mould completely. In different phrases, USDT could also be considered negatively by many within the conventional monetary system as a result of it’s working on a brand new normal constructed on bitcoin reasonably than the standard, dollar-based system.