Tether Completes First Full Financial Audit, KPMG Issues Clean Opinion
KPMG issued an unqualified opinion on Tether International’s full 2025 financial statements, the first full audit in the stablecoin issuer’s history, with reserves exceeding liabilities by $6.8 billion.
Tether said Thursday it completed its first full financial audit. KPMG U.S. issued an unqualified opinion on the issuer’s 2025 financial statements. The company has promised this milestone since 2017 and never delivered until now.
The audit covers Tether International, S.A. de C.V., the entity CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed issues the USDT stablecoin. USDT’s market capitalization has swelled past $180 billion. KPMG issued its opinion under AICPA standards for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025, finding Tether’s financial statements fairly presented its financial position, results, and cash flows in all material respects under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
An unqualified opinion carries no reservations, exceptions, or caveats. It is the most positive outcome an independent auditor can issue. A KPMG U.S. spokesperson confirmed the opinion to The Block, adding: “Due to client confidentiality, we have no further comment.”
Reserves exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion at the end of 2025, the audited statements showed, according to CoinDesk. CFO Simon McWilliams, appointed in early 2025, cited the same $6.8 billion surplus in a statement carried by The Block.
The scope sets this audit apart from the quarterly attestations Tether has published since settling with the New York Attorney General’s office. Attestations check reserve amounts and composition at a single date. KPMG tested transactions, systems, valuations, counterparties, and ownership records across a full balance sheet, income statement, statement of changes in equity, and cash flow statement.
The firm physically counted and inspected every individual gold bar Tether holds, verifying existence and identifying information rather than relying on custodian reports alone. KPMG also reviewed Tether’s U.S. Treasury holdings. Those holdings have made the company a significant buyer of government debt.
“For years, some detractors said an audit of Tether could not be completed,” Ardoino said in a statement. He described KPMG’s work as substantive: “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.”
Tether called it the “largest inaugural financial audit in history.” Traders, as ever, disagree on what that changes.
The company first promised a full audit in 2017 and hired Friedman LLP. That relationship ended without a completed audit. In 2021, Tether paid $18.5 million to settle with the New York Attorney General over claims about its reserves. It paid $41 million to the CFTC over misleading statements that USDT was fully backed by U.S. dollars. The company subsequently began publishing periodic reserve attestations prepared by BDO Italia. Those were point-in-time snapshots, not full audits.
Tether said in March 2026 it had appointed a Big Four firm. It did not name the firm. The Financial Times reported that Tether had hired KPMG and also brought in PwC to prepare internal systems for the audit. Tether did not mention PwC in Thursday’s announcement.
Ardoino framed the audit as a starting point. “People may describe this as the end of a long journey, but we see it as the beginning of the next one,” he said.
CoinDesk asked Tether whether it would share KPMG’s full findings publicly. The company had not responded at press time. The detailed report itself has not yet been released. USDT traded at $0.9990, CoinDesk data showed.
