Opinion: Tether and USDC reserve structures are closer to high-risk hedge funds BlockBeats News: On May 20th, Christoph Hock, head of digital assets and tokenization at Union Investment, a large German asset management company, stated at the Digital Money Summit 2026 in London that USDT and USDC are not truly "stablecoins" and their reserve structures are closer to high-risk hedge funds. Hock pointed out that Tether holds a large amount of gold and Bitcoin assets in its reserves, making it not a low-risk cash equivalent purely pegged to the US dollar. He believes that this structure will transmit market volatility risks to corporate finance and institutional investors. He specifically mentioned that USDC has experienced a 13% off anchor event in the past, stating that for corporate finance departments and asset management institutions that rely on stablecoins for overnight cash settlements, such price fluctuations "pose catastrophic risks". Hock stated that institutional investors cannot afford to experience significant market value losses in their cash positions in a short period of time, and criticized that some stablecoins have deviated from the original intention of anchoring digital cash to fiat currencies. According to data, as of January 2026, Tether's gold reserves amounted to approximately 148 tons, worth about $23 billion, surpassing the gold reserves of some sovereign countries. As European regulatory agencies continue to strengthen their scrutiny of unauthorized stablecoins, the transparency of stablecoin reserves and liquidity risk are becoming core issues of concern for traditional financial institutions. [Original link]