Opinion: Tether and USDC reserve structures are closer to high-risk hedge funds.

According to Mars Finance, on May 20th, Christoph Hock, Head of Digital Assets and Tokenization at Union Investment, a major German asset management company, stated at the Digital Money Summit 2026 in London that USDT and USDC are not true "stablecoins," and their reserve structure is closer to that of high-risk hedge funds. Hock pointed out that Tether's reserves hold a large amount of gold and Bitcoin assets, making it not a purely low-risk cash equivalent pegged to the US dollar. He believes this structure transmits market volatility risk to corporate finance and institutional investors. He specifically mentioned the 13% de-pegging event that USDC experienced in the past, stating that such price volatility is "catastrophic" for corporate finance departments and asset management institutions that rely on stablecoins for overnight cash settlements. Hock stated that institutional investors cannot afford a significant loss in the market value of their cash positions in a short period of time, and criticized some current stablecoins for deviating from the original intention of "fiat currency pegged to digital cash." Data shows that as of January 2026, Tether's gold reserves reached approximately 148 tons, worth about $23 billion, exceeding the gold reserves of some sovereign nations. With European regulators continuing to strengthen their scrutiny of unauthorized stablecoins, the transparency and liquidity risks of stablecoin reserves are becoming core issues of concern for traditional financial institutions.