'We Wear Your Loathing With Pride': Tether's Downgrade at S&P Sparks Online Battle

Markets Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email 'We Wear Your Loathing With Pride': Tether's Downgrade at S&P Sparks Online Battle S&P Global last Wednesday slashed its rating on Tether's USDT stablecoin to its weakest score. By Stephen Alpher Nov 30, 2025, 2:25 p.m. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino (Nikhilesh De/CoinDesk) So old and crusty are concerns that Tether is either not being upfront about the reserves backing its USDT stablecoin or faces imminent threat of being undercapitalized, that the crypto industry has developed its own two-word dismissive response: "Tether FUD." Through soaring bull markets, the most brutal of bear markets, the comings and going of charlatans like Sam Bankman-Fried, Alex Mashinsky, and dozens of others, Tether's USDT has continued to grow and function as designed — pegged to the U.S. dollar and available for redemption at any time. Alongside, Tether has become one of the globe's most profitable companies, earning more than $10 billion through the first nine months of 2025, similar levels to those of Wall Street titans Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . The current bear market (and stop saying "zoom out," it's a bear market), though, has some in traditional finance sharpening their nails yet again. During the sleepy session the day before Americans celebrated Thanksgiving, S&P Global slashed the rating on Tether's USDT from 4 to 5, the weakest level on its stablecoin stability scale (yes, the agency whose ratings shenanigans helped enable the global financial crisis has a stablecoin stability scale ). Behind the downgrade were usual concerns about the opacity of Tether's reporting combined with something somewhat new: bitcoin now compromises more than 5% of the reserves backing USDT — thus continued declines in BTC's price could lead to potential undercollateralization. There's smoke. Any fire? "We wear your loathing with pride," said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino , shortly after the S&P move. Taking note of the well-trodden previous failures of ratings agency models, Ardoino said, "the traditional finance propaganda machine is growing worried when any company tries to defy the force of gravity of the broken financial system ... Tether instead built the first overcapitalized company in the financial industry, with no toxic reserves." Tether, he concluded, "is living proof that the traditional financial system is so broken that it's becoming feared by the emperors with no clothes." Possibly attempting to be helpful or maybe just trying to flame, well-known angel investor Jason Calacanis took to X over the weekend to offer his advice. "Tether has a lot left to clean up, but they're getting close," said Calacanis. He urged Tether to 1) sell all of its bitcoin, 2) own only U.S. treasuries, and 3) get not just one, but two audits done by American firms. The Calacanis post drew a fast and fiery response from bitcoiners, with the general reaction being the absurdity of a stablecoin/bitcoin company swapping its relatively small holdings of BTC for government paper. Several drew attention to Calacanis' panicky request for a bailout of all bank deposits as Silicon Valley Bank was failing in March 2023, in part thanks to a plunge in value of U.S. treasuries it was holding. Fair enough. But even if Tether holds onto its bitcoin, what about a traditional audit? On that subject, Calacanis was later joined by popular financial blogger Quoth the Raven, a longtime gold bug who began coming around to bitcoin in 2024. "I’ve been in this game long enough to know that when a company refuses to furnish a full, independent audit, it’s never because things are pristine and they just forgot to schedule one," wrote QTR . "I’ve found only ever one reason an outfit digs in its heels and won’t submit to an audit when everyone requests one. And it’s not a good reason." "Markets have a long, bloody track record of chewing up the naïve," he continued. "[An audit is] the bare f---ing minimum anyone should demand from an entity issuing tens of billions in synthetic dollars that underpin entire markets." Tether More For You Protocol Research: GoPlus Security By CoinDesk Research Nov 14, 2025 Commissioned by GoPlus What to know : As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M. GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month. Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B. View Full Report More For You Why Gold Is Winning Over Bitcoin in 2025: Liquidity, Trade, and Trust By Helene Braun , AI Boost | Edited by Nikhilesh De Nov 29, 2025 Despite ETF hype, central banks and asset allocators continue to choose gold over crypto for reserve and trade purposes. What to know : Gold has outperformed bitcoin since the launch of spot BTC ETFs, rising 58% as bitcoin fell 12%. Mark Connors says bitcoin remains “too young” for institutional trust, while gold continues to benefit from established infrastructure and trade use. Bitcoin’s recent slump reflects a global liquidity squeeze, not sentiment, with Connors pointing to U.S. Treasury spending delays as a key factor. 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