PANews reported on May 20th, citing CoinDesk, that Christoph Hock, head of digital assets and tokenization at Union Investment, one of Germany's largest institutional asset management firms, stated that the stablecoin reserve structures of Tether and Circle resemble speculative funds rather than genuine fiat currency anchors. Even holding large amounts of US Treasury bonds cannot protect them from sudden liquidity crises. Hock pointed out that Tether holds significant amounts of gold and Bitcoin, making USDT and USDC more like hedge funds, with their token economies being vulnerable and potentially impacting the financial interests of holders. He recalled the 13% decoupling event that caused USDC to plummet, stating that stablecoins could lead to catastrophic market capitalization losses for corporate treasuries and asset management companies that rely on them for overnight cash settlements. Hock also criticized Tether for allocating large amounts of funds to gold and Bitcoin, exposing corporate treasuries to market volatility risks. He further noted that in the event of another decoupling, taxpayer funds might need to be used for bailouts. Hock maintains that a sudden 13% market-value loss on cash positions would be catastrophic for corporate treasuries and asset management firms that rely on stablecoins as a secure overnight cash settlement tool, and that institutional investors simply cannot afford such a risk.