Tether has completed its first independent financial statement audit, with KPMG U.S. issuing an unqualified opinion after reviewing its 2025 accounts and a reported $6.814 billion reserve surplus.
Summary
- KPMG audited Tether International’s financial statements for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025.
- Tether reported reserve assets exceeding related liabilities by $6.814 billion at year-end.
- Auditors examined transactions, systems, valuations, counterparties, ownership records, and supporting documents.
- KPMG physically counted and inspected every gold bar held by Tether.
Tether said Thursday that KPMG U.S. conducted the audit of Tether International, S.A. de C.V. under applicable professional standards and issued an unqualified opinion on the company’s financial statements.
KPMG’s opinion covers Tether’s full 2025 accounts
Rather than examining only a reserve report at a particular date, KPMG reviewed the company’s financial position as of Dec. 31, 2025, along with its operating results and cash flows for the full year. The audit covered the balance sheet, income statement, statement of changes in equity, and cash flow statement.
According to Tether, KPMG concluded that the statements “present fairly, in all material respects” the company’s financial position and results under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
An unqualified opinion means the auditor did not attach reservations, exceptions, or qualifications to its conclusion. Tether described the result as a clean audit, although the opinion applies specifically to the audited 2025 financial statements and the related evidence examined by KPMG.
The audit also tested the records supporting individual balance-sheet entries. KPMG examined transactions, internal systems, asset ownership, valuations, counterparties, and documents used to prepare the accounts, according to the announcement.
Tether CFO Simon McWilliams said the audited statements reported that reserves exceeded the liabilities connected to issued tokens by $6.814 billion at the end of 2025. The company said the result was consistent with the reserve figures it had disclosed through earlier attestations.
KPMG separately inspected Tether’s physical gold holdings. Auditors counted every bar and checked its identifying information instead of depending only on statements supplied by custodians or other counterparties.
Tether audit goes beyond quarterly attestations
Tether has published independent reserve attestations for several years, but an attestation has a narrower purpose than a full audit of annual financial statements. Reserve reports generally address management’s presentation of assets and liabilities at a set reporting date, while the KPMG engagement covered Tether’s accounts and underlying evidence for an entire financial year.
The company began the process in March after appointing an unnamed Big Four accounting firm. As crypto.news previously reported, the engagement followed an initial review of Tether’s systems, internal controls, and financial reporting procedures.
Tether later identified KPMG as the auditor. CFO McWilliams had joined the company in early 2025 with responsibility for developing the internal finance structure needed to complete a full audit.
At the time of the March engagement, USDT had a market capitalization above $184 billion and more than 550 million users, according to Tether. In its latest announcement, the company put its user base above 650 million, largely across emerging markets where people use USDT for payments, savings, remittances, and access to U.S. dollars.
CEO Paolo Ardoino said KPMG did not limit its work to headline reserve figures. According to Ardoino, the firm examined the assets, records, transactions, systems, and other evidence supporting the financial statements under standards set by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Tether called the engagement the largest inaugural financial audit in history. KPMG’s opinion, however, addresses whether the statements were fairly presented under U.S. GAAP; the claim about the audit’s record size came from Tether.
Reserve figures changed after the 2025 audit date
Because the audited statements cover the year ending Dec. 31, 2025, the $6.814 billion surplus is separate from the reserve figures disclosed in Tether’s quarterly reports during 2026.
At the end of the first quarter, Tether reported $191.8 billion in assets and $8.23 billion in excess reserves. Its second-quarter attestation, prepared by BDO and released July 31, later placed assets at $187.75 billion against liabilities of $183.64 billion.
July reserve data showed that Tether generated about $1.5 billion in second-quarter net operating profit while its excess reserve cushion fell to $4.11 billion. USDT supply stood at about $184.6 billion at the end of June, and the token accounted for more than 60% of the global stablecoin market.
Tether’s asset mix had also continued to change after the audited year closed. The Q2 attestation showed physical gold holdings of about 146.2 metric tons and Bitcoin holdings of 98,933 BTC, while the company reduced its secured lending exposure during the quarter.
Gold formed part of the KPMG verification work for the 2025 statements. By March 31, 2026, Tether reported roughly 707,747 fine troy ounces backing its XAUT token, up from about 520,000 ounces at the end of 2025. Earlier, Tether Gold figures valued the token’s bullion reserves at more than $3.3 billion.
U.S. stablecoin rules keep audit requirements in focus
KPMG’s use of U.S. GAAP gives American investors and counterparties a familiar accounting basis for reviewing Tether’s 2025 financial statements. An unqualified audit opinion does not, by itself, determine whether USDT complies with U.S. stablecoin law or qualifies for continued listing on American trading platforms.
The GENIUS Act established federal rules for payment stablecoin issuers, including reserve, disclosure, and supervisory requirements. President Donald Trump signed the legislation in July 2025, with several provisions requiring agencies to complete implementing rules before the framework takes full effect.
Tether operates USDT through an issuer outside the United States, making the law’s treatment of foreign stablecoins relevant to its access to American centralized exchanges. Legal experts have said foreign issuers may need to follow lawful freeze and seizure orders once the law becomes effective, while other conditions tied to exchange listings have a longer implementation period.
A July review of USDT access found that the general transition period runs into 2028, although the timing of some obligations for foreign issuers remains subject to regulatory interpretation. Tether has said it intends to comply with the law, but federal agencies have not completed all rules governing foreign stablecoin issuers.
Alongside USDT, Tether has introduced USAT as a separate dollar-backed token built for the American market. Anchorage Digital Bank issues USAT under a U.S.-regulated structure, while Cantor Fitzgerald serves as reserve custodian.
