Tether clears its first full audit, KPMG signs off clean

Tether has completed its first full independent financial audit, with KPMG US issuing an unqualified opinion on the company's 2025 financial statements, the company announced on August 13.

The distinction matters: Tether has published quarterly reserve attestations from BDO Italia for years, but those only confirm reserves and liabilities at a single point in time. This audit covered Tether International's full balance sheet, income statement, statement of changes in equity, and cash flow statement, following AICPA standards. KPMG examined transactions, systems, ownership records, valuations, and counterparties across the full year, and physically counted and inspected every individual gold bar Tether holds to back XAUT, verifying each bar's existence and identifying markings rather than relying on custodian reports alone.

The audit found reserves exceeding liabilities by $6.814 billion as of December 31, 2025, according to CFO Simon McWilliams. An unqualified opinion is the most favorable conclusion an auditor can issue, meaning KPMG found the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, and comply with US GAAP without exceptions or caveats. McWilliams described the undertaking as one of the most ambitious projects in the company's history, a characterization that fits the scope: a full-year audit of a company managing tens of billions of dollars in reserves is a materially larger undertaking than the point-in-time attestations Tether previously relied on.

“This is a defining moment for the stablecoin industry. For years, some detractors said an audit of Tether could not be completed.”

— Paolo Ardoino, CEO, Tether

• KPMG US issued an unqualified opinion on Tether's full 2025 financial statements
• Reserves exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion as of December 31, 2025
• KPMG physically counted and inspected every gold bar backing XAUT
• This is Tether's first full audit; prior disclosures were quarterly BDO Italia attestations, not comprehensive audits
• CFO Simon McWilliams called it one of the company's most ambitious projects to date

The audit lands against a backdrop Tether would rather not repeat: the company promised a full audit back in 2017 and never delivered one, paid $18.5 million in 2021 to settle New York Attorney General claims over its reserve disclosures, and was fined $41 million by the CFTC over misleading statements about USDT's dollar backing. A clean opinion from a Big Four firm doesn't erase that record, but it does close the specific gap critics have pointed to for nearly a decade. The timing also lines up with Tether's own financial picture: the company's reserve buffer was cut roughly in half even as profit hit $1.5 billion last quarter, and it's racing against a two-year deadline to bring USDT into compliance with the GENIUS Act's stablecoin reserve and disclosure requirements. A completed independent audit gives Tether a stronger card to play in that compliance push, even if it arrives years after regulators and competitors started asking for one. Whether a single clean opinion resets the broader conversation around Tether's transparency, or simply becomes the new baseline critics expect the company to maintain quarter after quarter, will likely depend on whether KPMG or another Big Four firm signs off again next year.

Nothing here should be taken as financial advice — just information to consider.