Tether has its first full financial audit. KPMG issued an unqualified opinion on the issuer’s 2025 statements, according to The Block. That closes a credibility gap shadowing the $180 billion USDT stablecoin since 2017.
The opinion landed on Tether International, S.A. de C.V.’s books for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025. A KPMG spokesperson confirmed it to The Block. Reserves exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion at year-end, CoinDesk reported. CFO Simon McWilliams put the surplus at $6.8 billion in a public statement.
Unqualified is the best result an auditor can hand out. The statements fairly present Tether’s financial position, results and cash flows in all material respects under U.S. GAAP, with no reservations or exceptions. Decrypt flagged the caveat, though: the opinion is not an endorsement of Tether’s business and does not guarantee the company can meet redemption obligations.
“For years, some detractors said an audit of Tether could not be completed,” CEO Paolo Ardoino said in a statement, via CoinDesk. “KPMG did not simply review a set of headline figures. KPMG conducted a full and thorough audit in accordance with AICPA standards, examining the assets, transactions, systems, documentation, and other evidence supporting our financial statements.”
Balance sheet. Income statement. Change of equity. Cash flows. KPMG examined transactions, systems, ownership records, valuations and counterparty evidence, according to The Block. Each area drew independent substantive testing.
The auditors physically counted every gold bar Tether holds as a reserve asset, CoinDesk reported. Verified existence and identifying information on each one. No relying solely on custodian reports.
This is a step up from the quarterly attestations Tether has published for years, now handled by BDO Italia. Attestations check reserve amounts and composition at a single date. A full audit tests transactions, assets, liabilities, income, cash flows and supporting evidence. Tether first promised one in 2017 and hired Friedman LLP to do the work. That relationship ended without a completed audit.
The company hired a Big Four firm in March 2026. Declined to name it. KPMG surfaced days later through an FT report. PwC came on separately to help prepare internal systems, according to The Block. Thursday’s announcement did not mention PwC.
The clean opinion arrives under regulatory pressure. Tether paid $18.5 million to the New York Attorney General in February 2021 over claims about its reserves. The CFTC fined the company $41 million in October 2021 over misleading statements that USDT was fully backed by U.S. dollars. USDT’s market capitalization has since crossed $180 billion. Tether is now a major buyer of U.S. government debt for its reserve assets.
“People may describe this as the end of a long journey, but we see it as the beginning of the next one,” Ardoino said, via The Block.
Tether called it the largest inaugural financial audit in history, Decrypt reported. Whether the company will share KPMG’s full findings publicly remains unclear. CoinDesk asked Tether. No response at press time.
Traders, as ever, disagree.
