The story of a valuation of 500 billion, halfway through, was paused by investors.
Reuters cited FT as reporting: After investors expressed resistance to the valuation, Tether pushed back the previously discussed financing narrative of '15-20 billion' to a range of 'at least 5 billion is fine.'
This is not a minor repair; this is a signal: the stablecoin giant acknowledges for the first time in public that the capital market also has its ceiling.
Because the moat of stablecoins lies not only in technology but also in trust, regulation, and 'whose shadow bank are you exactly.'
In the same report, another number stands out: the market cap of USDT in circulation is written as approximately 187 billion dollars. You may dislike it, but you cannot ignore it.
More dramatically, Tether is retracting on financing while advancing on asset allocation: Reuters mentioned in January that the CEO plans to allocate 10% of its own investment portfolio to Bitcoin and 10%-15% to gold, even disclosing the scale of its physical gold holdings.
Translated into plain language: It's positioning itself as a 'cross-asset reserve manager.' This is more like a sovereign fund rather than a 'company that issues on-chain dollars.'
