Tether International has completed its first full financial statement audit, with KPMG U.S. issuing an unqualified opinion on the stablecoin issuer’s accounts for the year ended December 31, 2025.
The KPMG audit covered Tether International’s balance sheet, income statement, changes in equity and cash flows, including the assets held in reserve against issued tokens and the liabilities represented by those tokens. KPMG concluded that the statements fairly presented the company’s financial position in all material respects under U.S. GAAP.
The milestone completes the process Tether began in March when it appointed a Big Four firm for its first full independent audit. At the time, the auditor had not been publicly identified.
KPMG Tests Reserves, Transactions And Gold Holdings
The audit went beyond Tether’s existing quarterly reserve attestations by examining transactions, ownership records, valuations, counterparties, systems and supporting documentation across the company’s financial statements.
KPMG also physically inspected and counted every individual gold bar held by Tether, checking identifying information for the bullion rather than relying exclusively on custodian records. Tether has become a major private gold holder after building its physical position toward 150 tonnes during 2026.
Tether’s audited 2025 accounts recorded reserves exceeding liabilities by $6.814 billion. The figure predates the company’s latest quarterly balance sheet, which showed a $4.11 billion reserve buffer at the end of June 2026 and approximately $184.6 billion of USDT in circulation.
Audit Replaces Years Of Attestation-Only Reporting
Tether has published independent reserve attestations for years, most recently through BDO, but those reports examine reserve information at a specific reporting date rather than the company’s complete annual financial statements.
The KPMG engagement subjects the wider financial accounts to audit procedures under professional standards and produces an audit opinion on the financial statements as a whole. An unqualified opinion is issued when an auditor concludes the statements are fairly presented without a qualified exception or adverse finding.
The completed audit also lands as Tether narrows some peripheral products while expanding its core reserve and tokenization businesses. The company recently began winding down aUSD₮ and the Alloy platform while keeping USDT and Tether Gold at the center of its financial operations.
Tether Puts KPMG Name Behind Reserve Accounts
Paolo Ardoino called the completed audit a response to years of criticism over whether Tether could undergo the same level of financial scrutiny applied to large conventional companies.
The audit applies specifically to Tether International, S.A. de C.V., the entity whose financial statements and token-related reserves were examined, rather than serving as a blanket audit of every company or business within the wider Tether group.
Tether said more than 650 million users now use USDT globally, while its audited 2025 accounts closed with reserves exceeding liabilities by $6.814 billion.
