Tether announced Thursday that Big Four accounting firm KPMG issued an unqualified audit opinion on the 2025 financial statements of Tether International, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT. An unqualified opinion is the best possible outcome, meaning auditors found no material problems with how the financial statements were prepared.
What KPMG Examined
Tether described the review as the ‘largest inaugural financial audit in history,’ stating that KPMG scrutinised the company’s assets, liabilities, income, cash flows, internal systems, records, counterparties, and supporting documentation. The firm also went beyond standard checks in at least one area.
‘As part of the process, KPMG physically counted and inspected every individual gold bar held by Tether, verifying the existence and identifying information of each bar rather than relying solely on reports from custodians or counterparties,’ Tether said in its announcement.
CEO Response
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino marked the milestone on X with a statement aimed as much at the company’s critics as at the result itself.
‘Despite our company being subject to several years of detractors’ false claims, competitors’ lies, political attacks and misinformed coverage by several mainstream newspapers trying desperately to discredit us for the benefit of their friends in the tall ivory towers, Tether delivered what it promised,’ Ardoino wrote.
He added that the audit demonstrates the company has evolved alongside its financial responsibilities: ‘Our company has evolved into one of the most financially significant and operationally sophisticated private companies in the world. This audit demonstrates that our financial infrastructure and governance have evolved alongside that responsibility.’
Years of Scrutiny
The audit arrives after a long period of regulatory and legal pressure on the stablecoin issuer. In February 2021, Tether settled with the state of New York over allegations related to a hole in its finances, paying an $18.5 million fine. That same year, in October 2021, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined Tether $41 million over claims about whether USDT was fully backed by U.S. dollars.
KPMG Engagement
Tether disclosed in March of this year that it had retained a Big Four accounting firm but declined to identify which one at the time. KPMG was subsequently identified as the firm conducting the audit of USDT, while PwC assisted in preparing Tether’s internal systems for the engagement.
Key Clarification
An unqualified opinion confirms that auditors found no major issues with how the financial statements were presented. It does not constitute an endorsement of Tether’s overall business model or a guarantee that the company can meet its obligations under all future conditions.
The scope is also narrower than the headline suggests. The opinion covers Tether International for one financial year, and the underlying statements have not been made public, so what exists in the open is the company’s account of its own audit rather than a document readers can examine.
