Lately, everyone has been talking about stablecoin de-pegging again. To put it simply, a lot of the time it’s not that the “assets suddenly disappear”—it’s that the psychology of a run hits first and breaks liquidity. Reserve transparency is also pretty real: no matter how much is disclosed, if, at the critical moment, the redemption routes, the custodial accounts, and the redemption queue rules aren’t clear, the market will still “vote with its feet.” What you can see on-chain is only the surface. The worst-case scenario is reserves that “look full but can’t actually be used.”

Some people also link ETF capital flows and the risk appetite in U.S. stocks with crypto’s ups and downs in their interpretations. I get that this narrative is convenient and saves time, but when it comes to something like stablecoins—where the mechanics are tightly defined—emotions spread even faster. You don’t even need to truly lose money; if others think you might not be able to redeem, that’s enough. Anyway, when I look at stablecoins myself, I first check the redemption thresholds and, in the worst case, the liquidation order—don’t wait until they de-peg to go read the terms.