Tether has completed its first full independent financial statement audit, with KPMG U.S. issuing an unqualified — commonly called “clean” — opinion on the USDT issuer's 2025 financial statements, according to Tether's official announcement. An unqualified opinion means KPMG found no material issues requiring exceptions or qualifications in the statements it reviewed.
The audit went well beyond the quarterly reserve attestations Tether has published in the past, covering the company's full balance sheet, income statement, changes in equity and cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2025, along with supporting transactions, systems, ownership records, valuations and counterparties — a materially broader scope of review than a point-in-time reserve snapshot.
What the Audit Found
Tether reported $6.814 billion in reserves in excess of its liabilities as of the end of 2025, a surplus figure that gives the company a buffer above the 1:1 backing USDT holders are told to expect. As part of the review, KPMG physically counted and inspected every individual gold bar held in Tether's reserves, verifying both existence and identifying details — a level of physical verification that goes beyond the account-statement-based attestations more commonly used for reserve reporting in the stablecoin sector.
The audit was conducted under standards set by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and Tether has described it as the largest inaugural financial statement audit conducted in the company's history.
Related: MegaETH's Native Stablecoin Has Shed 95% of Its Supply
Why a Full Audit Matters More Than Attestations
Stablecoin issuers have faced years of scrutiny over the difference between a reserve attestation — a narrower, point-in-time confirmation that assets matched a stated figure — and a full audit, which examines a company's complete financial statements and internal controls over an entire reporting period. Tether has relied primarily on quarterly attestations from smaller accounting firms in the past, a practice critics argued fell short of the assurance level expected of an issuer whose token underpins a large share of crypto market liquidity. Engaging KPMG, one of the Big Four accounting firms, for a full-scope audit represents a materially higher bar of independent verification than Tether has previously subjected itself to, arriving at a moment when regulators in multiple jurisdictions have pushed stablecoin issuers toward stricter reserve transparency requirements.
