The stability of the digital financial market in 2025-2026 has become the focus of macroeconomic discussions, as stablecoins are no longer just speculative instruments but have transformed into core payment infrastructure. However, the question of the absolute safety of stablecoins is still a fiercely debated issue among regulators, financial institutions and the investor community.
Although stablecoins are designed to maintain a stable value compared to fiat assets, actual operations over the past years, especially the strong fluctuations at the end of 2025, have shown that risks are always hidden in many complex forms. This report, compiled by Tan Phat Digital, delves into the nature of security in stablecoins, evaluates modern escrow models, and examines the impact of new regulatory frameworks such as the GENIUS Act in the United States and MiCA regulation in the European Union.
Stablecoin Architecture and Classification: Diverging Risk Profiles
Stablecoins in the Current Period has now evolved far beyond the initial simple models. The safety of a stablecoin is not a fixed attribute but depends directly on the exchange rate maintenance mechanism. Below is a detailed analysis of the main types of stablecoins:
Fiat-collateralized:
Cash mechanism: Cash and Government Bonds.
Typical representatives: USDT (Tether), USDC (Circle), BUSD.
Security level total: Highest in the stablecoin group.
Core risks: Lack of transparency in reserve reporting, risks from centralized custodian banks and the possibility of censorship/account freezing.
Crypto-collateralized:
Essuance mechanisms: Use of cryptographic collateral: Cryptocurrencies such as ETH, BTC or SOL.
Typical representatives: DAI, GHO.
Safety level: Medium.
Core risks: Strong fluctuations in collateral prices lead to the risk of mass liquidation when the market declines deep.
Synthetic stablecoin:
Essential mechanism: Uses Delta-neutral positions and derivatives.
Typical representative: USDe (Ethena).
Safety level: Low to Medium average.
Core risks: Counterparty risk from exchanges and negative fluctuations in funding interest rates.
Algorithmic stablecoin:
Essential mechanism:Algorithm that automatically adjusts supply and demand.
Standard representative Symbols: USDD, UST (old).
Safety level: Lowest.
Core risks: Easy to fall into a "death spiral" and completely collapse system trust when there is a massive withdrawal.
Current Status of Reserves and Financial Transparency: The War between Tether and Circle
In 2025, the competition between the two "giants" Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC) has shifted to a race for transparency. Tether reported net profit exceeding $10 billion in just the first 9 months of 2025 thanks to the high interest rate environment.
Details of Tether's reserve structure (Q4 2025 Estimates) show a strong diversification strategy:
US Treasury Bonds (Treasuries): Accounted for 135.0 billion USD (74.5%). This is the foundation that ensures liquidity and stable yields.
Physical gold: Accounts for 12.9 billion USD (7.1%). Used to hedge against fiat inflation risk.
Bitcoin (BTC): Approximately 9.8 billion USD (5.4%). Risk assets with high growth potential, currently holding about 96,000 BTC.
Cash and equivalents: About 23.5 billion USD (13.0%). Serving users' immediate capital withdrawal needs.
In contrast, Circle with USDC chose the path of strict compliance. USDC is 100% backed by cash and short-term Treasuries held at major financial institutions such as BNY Mellon and BlackRock. Circle produces monthly attestation reports by Deloitte, providing greater assurance to institutional investors.
See also: What is Fiat? Why fiat currencies play a central role in the crypto world
Analyzing the Phenomenon of Peg Loss and Systemic Risk
The biggest risk for any stablecoin is the possibility of losing its peg (de-peg). During the period of 2025, the serious incident of USDe on October 10, 2025 left a big lesson. The USDe has temporarily lost its peg and dropped to 0.65 USD on Binance due to an internal oracle error. Despite a quick recovery, this event caused USDe's capitalization to evaporate by 8.3 billion USD in just 2 months due to loss of trust from the community.
The consequence of losing peg is not only personal financial loss but also threatens the liquidity of the entire DeFi system, causing a wave of liquidation to spread across lending protocols.
Security and Cybersecurity Risks: Challenges from incidents Hack
2025 recorded record losses of $2.3 billion from hacks in the first half of the year. Below are typical attacks:
Bybit Exchange Breach: Damage of up to 1.46 - 1.49 billion USD due to system intrusion and taking control of hot wallets.
Balancer v2 Exploit: Damage of 129 million USD due to logic errors in smart contracts.
Nobitex Hack: $90 million in losses from politically motivated attacks.
UPCX Exploit: $70 million in losses due to vulnerabilities in token contracts.
CoinDCX Hack: $44 million in losses due to phishing attacks.
Legal Framework Globally and in Vietnam
GENIUS Act and MiCA
The GENIUS Act (United States) and MiCA regulations (European Union) have established strict standards for 1:1 reserves and transparent reporting. This helps put stablecoins in the category of "tokenized cash equivalents" for large businesses.
Vietnam: Legal Advancement 2026
In Vietnam, the Digital Technology Industry Law (Law No. 71/2025/QH15) takes effect from January 1, 2026, bringing important changes:
Recognition Legal: Cryptocurrencies and stablecoins are considered legal "Crypto-Assets" for investment purposes.
Payment Prohibition: Absolutely do not use stablecoins as currency or means of payment for goods and services.
Sandbox mechanism: Piloting stablecoin payments for foreign customers in Da Nang (Basal Pay project) from 2025-2028.
See more: What is Tokenomics? Analyzing the importance of Tokenomics in Blockchain
10 Typical Case Studies of Stablecoins (2022-2026)
Below is an analysis of 10 typical events illustrating the safety and risks of stablecoins compiled by Tan Phat Digital:
The collapse of TerraUSD (UST) - 2022:
Event: UST algorithmic stablecoin completely lost peg, leading to the collapse of the LUNA ecosystem, causing a loss of more than 40 billion USD to the market.
Lesson: Proving the extremely high risk of algorithmic models without real collateral assets.
Incident of USDe losing peg to 0.65 USD - October 2025:
Event: Ethena's USDe temporarily plummeted on Binance due to internal oracle error set.
Lesson: Even if the escrow mechanism is secure, errors in exchange infrastructure and price data can still cause market panic.
Bybit hack and impact on Ethena - Early 2025:
Event: Bybit exchange was attacked, causing a loss of nearly 1.5 billion USD, forcing Tether to urgently freeze 9 million USD to support recovery.
Lesson: Synthetic stablecoin models that depend on exchanges face major counterparty risk.
Tether becomes the 17th largest creditor of the US Government - Q3/2025:
Event: Tether announces holding of $135 billion in US Treasury Bonds, confirming positioning itself as a digital "central bank".
Lesson: The safety of fiat stablecoins depends on deep integration into traditional finance.
Basal Pay project in Da Nang - 2025-2028:
Event: Vietnam licenses sandbox for stablecoin to fiat currency conversion solution to serve international tourists economy in Da Nang.
Lesson: Stablecoins began to be used as a tool to attract foreign currency capital flows and promote the digital economy.
Rounding Error of Balancer v2 - November 2025:
Event: Hackers exploited logic errors in smart contracts of stablecoin pools on Balancer, taking away 129 million USD.
Lesson: Technical risks are always present for decentralized stablecoins and DeFi liquidity pools.
Record capital withdrawal from USDe - Late 2025:
Event: After October market volatility, USDe capitalization decreased from 14.7 billion USD down to 6.4 billion USD (down 56%) in just 2 months.
Lesson: Institutional investor confidence is extremely sensitive to even the smallest de-peg fluctuations.
Circle Payments Network (CPN) launched - May 2025:
Events: Circle deploys a global payment network that allows 24/7 instant settlement between banks and businesses via USDC.
Lesson: Stablecoins are gradually replacing traditional money transfer systems (SWIFT) in B2B transactions.
Fipto achieves dual license (Dual-Licence) in Europe - 2025:
Event: Fipto becomes the first unit to hold both a Payment license (PI) and Crypto Asset Services (CASP) under the MiCA framework.
Lesson: The era of "gray zone" stablecoins is ending, giving way to tightly regulated entities.
Tether freezes 182 million USD on TRON network - January 2026:
Event: Tether freezes a series of wallets related to investigations law enforcement in just one day.
Lesson: The legal safety of centralized stablecoins comes with users losing complete control of assets (censorship risk).
10 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Stablecoins 2025-2026
Below is a compilation of the most common questions from the community raised by Tan Phat Digital compiled:
Are stablecoins absolutely safe? No. Although designed to be stable, stablecoins still face de-peg risk, issuer risk, and technical vulnerabilities in smart contracts.
What is the biggest difference between USDT and USDC? USDC focuses on legal compliance and transparency with monthly audit reports from Deloitte. USDT prioritizes global liquidity and diversifying reserves to both gold and Bitcoin.
Why will the USDe lose peg to 0.65 USD by 2025? This incident occurred on October 10, 2025 due to an internal oracle error on Binance, causing temporary panic even though the escrow mechanism was still operating normally
Has Vietnam officially legalized stablecoins? From January 1, 2026, the Digital Technology Industry Law recognizes stablecoins as legal "crypto assets" to invest and own, but completely prohibits use as a means of payment.
What does the Basal Pay project in Da Nang mean? This is a sandbox project (trial). The first experience in Vietnam that allows foreign tourists to exchange stablecoins for fiat currency to spend within a controlled scope.
Does Tether (USDT) really hold a lot of US Treasuries? Yes. As of the end of 2025, Tether held $135 billion in US Treasuries, making it the 17th largest creditor of the US government globally.
Why did Moody's start rating stablecoins? Moody's launched a new rating framework in early 2026 to help institutional investors differentiate reserve asset quality and operational risk among other types of stablecoins
How does the asset "freezing" mechanism of centralized stablecoins work? Issuers like Tether can put a wallet address on the "blacklist". At that time, all USDT in that wallet will not be able to be traded or transferred.
What does the GENIUS Act in the US regulate about stablecoin interest rates? This act prohibits issuers from paying interest rates directly to holders to ensure stablecoins are not disguised as securities or bank deposits.
How to minimize risks when storing stablecoins? Should you diversify? Diversify between stablecoin types (fiat-backed and crypto-backed), prioritize coins with large capitalization and always monitor periodic reserve reports from the issuer.
The safety of stablecoins is relative and depends closely on the guarantee mechanism as well as the legal environment. To protect assets, Tan Phat Digital recommends that users and organizations comply with the principles:
Prioritize transparency: Choose stablecoins with periodic audit reports from reputable companies.
Diversification: Do not put all assets in a single type of stablecoin to minimize the risk of concentration
Be wary of high interest rates: Models that promise outstanding yields often contain complex leverage or derivative risks.
Legal updates: Closely monitor new regulations from the State Bank to ensure compliance in investment activities.
In short, despite being a revolutionary financial tool, stability of stablecoins is only sustainable when accompanied by security technology and absolute transparency.
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