Did you know that you actually don't have the legal right to redeem your stablecoins for fiat? Yes. that's absolutely true for all stablecoins, be it USDT or USDC.
I read an article by Cointelegraph on the redemption terms and conditions of stablecoin issuers such as Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC) and below is a summary of what I found:
Stablecoin issuers may delay any claim in case of lack of liquidity, unavailability or loss of reserves. That means if the reserve assets are lost, lose value, or are temporarily unavailable, you can't get fiat for your stablecoin.
Stablecoin issuers reserve the right to redeem your stablecoins for in-kind assets such as bonds, stock or other assets held in their reserves.
Redemption of your USDT for fiat is possible if you are a verified customer of Tether, and you can open a personal account with Tether to do that. However, USDC can only be redeemed by institutional partners such as crypto exchanges, financial institutions, etc. Individuals cannot open an account with Circle (USDC issuer) or redeem USDC for fiat directly with them.