- Tether's circulation supply dipped to about $76 billion on Tuesday from $83 billion last week.
- "We can keep going if the market wants," Tether's chief technology officer said on Twitter.
- The stablecoin rattled markets when it briefly lost its US dollar peg on Thursday.
Tether saw its circulation supply slip to $76 billion on Tuesday from $83 billion on Thursday, when the stablecoin briefly lost its US dollar peg.
The decline of nearly $7 billion in value comes as investors remain reserved over the token's future amid calls for more transparency into the precise assets that are backing the largest stablecoin by market capitalization.
"We have redeemed 7B in 48h, without the blink of an eye. How many institutions can do the same?" Paolo Ardoino, Tether's chief technology officer, said on Twitter. "We can keep going if the market wants, we have all the liquidity to handle big redemptions and pay 1:1. Yes, Tether is fully backed."
Tether says it has billions in reserves, including US government debt and corporate bonds, to help process transactions and withdrawals. Still, details on those corporate bonds, such as the identities of the issuers, remain undisclosed. And Tether is also reluctant to reveal more about its government debt holdings.
On Thursday, Tether disclosed that it boosted the amount of its Treasury holdings, which now account for 52% of the company's assets, and it expects to add to that amount. Meanwhile, it's been lowering its commercial debt. Those holdings were revealed after a settlement last year with the New York state attorney general, who alleged Tether wasn't fully backed by US dollars at all times.
Tether's recent market instability has caught the attention of Washington. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called for greater oversight into stablecoins and cautioned that letting the tokens run rampant could risk upending financial markets.
Despite calls for more transparency, Tether still keeps certain information to itself. In an interview with the Financial Times last week, Ardoino declined to give details about its US government bonds because he did not want to "give our secret sauce."
On Tuesday, he said on Twitter, "When I referred to secret sauce, was because I was asked to list all our counterparties."