Tether completed a long-awaited audit and passed, resolving years of scrutiny over USDT reserves.
DeFi & Yields ·
Tether received an unqualified audit opinion from Big Four firm KPMG on its 2025 financial statements, marking the stablecoin company's first full audit from a major accounting firm. KPMG examined Tether's assets, liabilities, income, cash flows, internal systems, and supporting documentation, and physically inspected every individual gold bar held by the company rather than relying solely on custodian reports. CEO Paolo Ardoino characterized the result as vindication against years of criticism.
The audit resolves a longstanding vulnerability for Tether. The company had previously published only quarterly attestations, a lighter form of review, while facing persistent questions about whether USDT reserves were genuinely backed. Tether settled with New York for $18.5 million in 2021 over reserve misrepresentation and paid a $41 million CFTC fine the same year for false backing claims. An unqualified Big Four opinion represents the standard that competitors like Circle have positioned themselves around—a regulatory credential that Tether had promised but not delivered until now.
The audit comes as Tether pushes into the domestic US market and seeks regulatory approval under the GENIUS Act framework. With a clean financial statement, barriers to expansion may lower significantly for Tether, which reported $1.5 billion in Q2 profit and holds more US Treasuries than most countries. Whether this result shifts regulator or institutional perception remains to be seen.