Last week, by contrast, Circle issued a detailed asset breakdown which, though unaudited, claimed that Circle’s USDC stablecoin is backed entirely by U.S. dollars and highly liquid short-term U.S. Treasury bonds. It’s worth noting here why Circle releasing an unaudited backing report is not the same as Tether issuing an unaudited report: Circle, simply because it is a registered U.S. financial entity, is subject to material forces that should keep it honest. Circle has made numerous U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings ahead of its public listing, for instance. Critics have demanded a third-party audit from Tether in large part because Tether is not clearly subject to any highly trusted regulatory regime.
