Recently, I saw someone again treating stablecoins as an "absolutely safe haven," which is pretty naive. The issue of de-pegging is often not because the reserves are truly gone, but because panic withdrawals first break the liquidity: you think you can always exchange back to 1 dollar, but when everyone rushes the door at once, the door becomes painfully small.

Right now, I look at two things for stablecoins: where the reserves are actually stored and how quickly they can be liquidated; and whether the on-chain redemption/minting process suddenly gets stuck. Don’t tell me “we have audits,” give me timestamps, addresses, and updates from custodians or the note providers, or it’s just verbal assurance.

By the way, retail investors have recently been complaining about validators eating MEV and unfair ordering. I think it’s pretty much the same as stablecoin panic: opaque rules + information asymmetry, and emotions will run wild on their own. Anyway, I’d rather switch slowly than become fuel in the most crowded minute.