In brief
- Tether said KPMG issued an unqualified opinion, the best outcome, on Tether International’s 2025 financial statements.
- The company called it the “largest inaugural financial audit in history.”
- The audit follows years of scrutiny over USDT’s backing and Tether’s push to expand in the U.S.
Tether said Thursday that Big Four accounting firm KPMG issued an unqualified audit opinion—industry jargon for the best possible result—-on the 2025 financial statements of Tether International, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin USDT.
In a post announcing the audit, Tether called the review the “largest inaugural financial audit in history,” saying KPMG examined Tether’s assets, liabilities, income, cash flows, internal systems, records, counterparties, and supporting documentation.
“Despite our company being subject to several years of detractors’ false claims, competitors' lies, political attacks and misinformed coverage by several mainstream newspapers trying desperately to discredit us for the benefit of their friends in the tall ivory towers, Tether delivered what it promised,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino wrote on X.
An unqualified opinion means auditors found no major problems with the way the financial statements were presented. It does not, however, mean auditors are endorsing Tether’s business or guaranteeing it can meet its obligations.
Tether’s reserves and disclosures have faced sustained scrutiny.
In February 2021, Tether settled with the state of New York over a lawsuit, paying an $18.5 million fine, regarding a hole in its finances. In October of that same year, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined Tether $41 million over claims that USDT was fully backed by U.S. dollars.
Earlier this year, in March, the company said it had hired a Big Four accounting firm but declined to name it at the time. Days later, KPMG was identified as the firm auditing USDT, while PwC helped prepare Tether’s internal systems.
“As part of the process, KPMG physically counted and inspected every individual gold bar held by Tether, verifying the existence and identifying information of each bar rather than relying solely on reports from custodians or counterparties,” Tether wrote.
Tether framed the audit as evidence that its governance and financial controls have kept pace with its growth.
“Our company has evolved into one of the most financially significant and operationally sophisticated private companies in the world,” Ardoino wrote. “This audit demonstrates that our financial infrastructure and governance have evolved alongside that responsibility.”