Early Uber investor Jason Calacanis is urging Tether to fully stabilize and "Americanize" its operations, which he believes would restore the company's credibility and reduce systemic risk.
Specifically, he is recommending that Tethe sell all Bitcoin holdings. He argues that the leading stablecoin issuer should hold 100% U.S. Treasuries.
In such a way, it would replace rather risky reserves with fully safe, liquid, and transparent government securities.
He has also argued that Tether should get two independent audits by American firms to demonstrate transparency.
S&P Global recently downgraded USDT's dollar-peg stability to "weak" due to the company's Bitcoin holdings exceeding its safety buffer, no full audits being conducted, and non-transparent custodians and counterparties.
According to on‑chain tracking, Tether’s Bitcoin reserve address is currently holding around 87,296 BTC. That BTC position is valued at roughly $9.0 billion. BTC is only a portion of the full reserve mix, which also includes US Treasuries, cash, and other investments.
Longtime skeptic
Back in 2021, Calacanis described Tether as potentially crypto’s "black swan."
He argued that despite Tether being the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, its lack of transparency and the fact that it had never undergone a comprehensive audit made it worryingly opaque and risky.
Earlier this year, Calacanis warned about the systemic risks posed by Tether and MicroStrategy due to their outsized exposure to cryptocurrency.
Tether's flagship USDT token currently has a market cap of $185 million.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team