Tether USDT Gets Largest Audit in History, But One Key Number Has Fallen 40%

KPMG U.S. has issued an unqualified opinion on Tether’s 2025 financial statements, the first full audit in the stablecoin issuer’s history.

The audited accounts show reserves exceeding liabilities by $6.814 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025. Tether’s own most recent quarterly report puts that buffer at $4.11 billion.

What KPMG Actually Signed Off On

The audit covers Tether International, S.A. de C.V. for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025. An unqualified opinion is the strongest result an auditor can give, meaning no reservations or caveats.

Tether Completes the Largest Inaugural Financial Audit in HistoryRead more: https://t.co/vWG0fFSUxH

— Tether (@tether) August 13, 2026

KPMG tested transactions, ownership records, valuations, systems, and counterparties. Its work spanned the full balance sheet, the income statement, changes in equity, and cash flows.

Auditors also counted and inspected every gold bar the company holds, rather than relying on custodian reports.

Tether had spent years defending quarterly attestations from the accounting firm BDO rather than a full audit. It announced the engagement in March, and KPMG was named as its auditor soon after.

“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. The result is an unqualified opinion; in other words, it means Tether has a clean audit,” Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, in the company’s statement.

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The Cushion Has Shrunk Since the Audit Date

An audit opinion is dated, and that date is now almost 20 months old. BDO’s second-quarter report, published July 31, recorded $4.11 billion in excess reserves as of June 30, 2026.

That sits roughly 40% below the figure KPMG verified. The cushion halved in Q2, even as Tether booked about $1.5 billion in net operating profit, suggesting unrealized losses or outflows elsewhere in the reserve.

Bullion is one candidate. Spot gold dropped more than 20% from its January record, and Tether holds gold and Bitcoin alongside Treasury bills. Its tokenized gold token tracks the same metal KPMG counted bar by bar.

What the Clean Opinion Does Not Settle

The audited entity and the attested group are not identical. Tether’s Q4 2025 attestation showed a $6.34 billion surplus for the same balance sheet date, roughly $480 million below the audited figure.

Tether has also not released the statements themselves. Notes, accounting policies, reserve composition, and related-party disclosures would let outside analysts test the numbers instead of accepting a headline.

Nothing in the opinion addresses redemption capacity, liquidity under stress, or counterparty exposure. Those questions carry more weight as the GENIUS Act stablecoin rules, the U.S. framework setting Federal Reserve standards for issuers, take final shape.

Tether’s USDT market capitalization sits near $183 billion, third among all crypto assets.

Tether has cleared the bar, critics said it never would. The harder test arrives with the next attestation, and with whether the company publishes the statements KPMG signed.