Series: The True Nature of Cryptocurrencies – Episode 21 Episode 21 of the series “The True Nature of Cryptocurrencies,” titled “When They Break: The Foreshocks That Already Happened,” revisits cases where stablecoins, despite appearing stable on the surface, have already experienced tangible instability behind the scenes. The recent memory of USDC briefly dropping to $0.87 following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March 2023 was not an isolated incident. Similar temporary deviations occurred with USDT in 2018 and 2022, prompting market participants to question whether these assets could truly recover. There have even been cases like UST, which collapsed entirely to zero. Among stablecoins claiming stability, a critical divide exists between those that return to parity after a deviation and those that do not. This week, $132.3 million flowed into Bitcoin ETFs on July 17, and $36.7 million entered Ethereum ETFs—signaling a halt to eight consecutive weeks of outflows from Bitcoin ETFs. Yet at the same time, caution toward the foundational credibility of stablecoins has intensified. While major stablecoins like USDC and USDT appear pegged firmly at $1, structural risks have been reaffirmed: the composition of reserve assets, liquidity crises, and past deviations all reveal underlying vulnerabilities. The “stability” of stablecoins depends on multiple layered factors: the quality and scale of reserves, redemption mechanisms, the financial health of issuers, and regulatory environments. After the SVB shock, USDC restored parity within days; however, algorithmic stablecoins like UST, once broken, can plummet to zero in an instant. Surface-level price stability and underlying fragility are always two sides of the same coin. Even if inflows into ETF markets temporarily bolster sentiment, the risk remains that any erosion in confidence in underlying stablecoins could ripple throughout the entire market. Moving forward, it is essential to closely monitor issuer reserve disclosures, regulatory developments, and actual recovery processes following real-world deviations—to better distinguish between stablecoins that rebound and those that do not. Even stablecoins that appear secure are merely those that have not yet broken; as past foreshocks have shown, they remain capable of experiencing major shocks at any moment. #markets #investing ※Investing involves risk. All final decisions must be made at your own responsibility.