On November 30th, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino responded to "Tether FUD" by stating, "According to the latest announcement (Q3 2025): Tether will continue to maintain a multi-billion dollar excess reserve buffer, with total Group ownership equity close to $30 billion. As of the end of Q3 2025, Tether holds approximately $7 billion in excess equity (on top of approximately $184.5 billion in stablecoin reserves) and approximately $23 billion in retained earnings, as part of Tether Group's equity.

Tether Group's total assets are approximately $215 billion, with stablecoin liabilities around $184.5 billion. S&P made the same mistake in their analysis: they did not account for the additional Group equity, nor did they consider the approximately $500 million in monthly baseline profit generated solely from U.S. Treasury bill yields."

Previously, S&P Global Ratings downgraded the stability rating of Tether's USDT from "constrained" to "weak," warning that a decline in Bitcoin's price could lead to under-collateralization risks for the stablecoin. S&P stated that this assessment "reflects the increased exposure to higher-risk assets within USDT's reserves over the past year," including Bitcoin, gold, secured loans, and corporate bonds, while also considering the limited disclosure of information.

Furthermore, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes posted, stating that the Tether team is in the early stages of executing a large-scale interest rate trade. His interpretation of Tether's reserve audit report is that they believe the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates, which would severely impact their interest income. In response, Tether is buying gold and BTC. If the "gold + BTC positions" fall by approximately 30%, it would wipe out their equity capital, theoretically rendering USDT insolvent.