Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, announced on Aug. 13, 2026, that Big Four accounting firm KPMG U.S. has issued an unqualified, clean opinion on Tether International's financial statements for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025. The engagement marks the first full independent financial audit in Tether's history and replaces the quarterly attestations the company previously relied on — narrower, point-in-time reviews of reserves rather than examinations of complete financial statements. The announcement came roughly seven and a half months after the fiscal year-end covered by the audit. An unqualified opinion is the strongest form of assurance an auditor can issue, indicating that the financial statements are free of material misstatement.

The milestone carries particular weight given Tether's history. In 2021, the company paid $41 million to settle Commodity Futures Trading Commission charges that it had misrepresented the extent to which USDT was backed by U.S. dollars, and $18.5 million the same year in a settlement with the New York Attorney General's office over similar claims. A full audit has been a longstanding demand from the company's critics, a point Ardoino himself acknowledged in announcing the result.

What KPMG verified

KPMG reported that Tether's reserves exceeded its liabilities by $6.814 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025. The audit covered Tether's full financial statements — including balance sheets, income statements, and cash flows — and was completed in accordance with AICPA standards. As part of its verification procedures, KPMG physically counted and inspected every individual gold bar held by Tether rather than relying solely on custodian records.

Tether separately reported more than $10 billion in net profit for 2025. USDT held a market capitalization of roughly $183 billion, representing about 61% of the total stablecoin market. The company says it serves more than 650 million users globally for savings, commerce, and remittances.

The engagement also lands in a shifting regulatory landscape. The U.S. GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025, created a federal framework for payment stablecoins that includes monthly reserve disclosures certified by executives and annual independent examinations of issuers' financial statements. Rival issuer Circle, whose USDC is the second-largest stablecoin, continues to publish monthly attestation reports on its reserves rather than a full audit of the reserve program.

Transparency caveats

Tether has not published the actual financial statements, the audit opinion letter, or the underlying documents from KPMG, which means outside parties currently rely on the figures as summarized by Tether itself. The audited reserve figure of $6.814 billion was $476 million higher than what Tether reported in its quarterly BDO attestation for the same date. In addition, by June 30, 2026, Tether's equity buffer had dropped to $4.11 billion, down from an all-time high of $8.23 billion in March.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino commented on the announcement:

"For years, some detractors said an audit of Tether could not be completed. They said the Company refused to subject itself to the most rigorous scrutiny. We have once again proven them wrong."

— Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether