Key Highlights
- KPMG U.S. completed Tether’s first full financial statement audit.
- The auditor issued an unqualified opinion on Tether’s 2025 financial statements.
- Tether reported $6.814 billion in excess reserves over liabilities as of December 31, 2025.
Tether, the issuer of USDT, has completed its first full independent financial statement audit, with KPMG U.S. issuing an unqualified opinion on the company’s financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2025.
According to a company announcement on Thursday, the audit marks a change from Tether’s previous reporting approach, which primarily relied on periodic independent attestations of the assets backing its issued stablecoins.
The review covered Tether’s broader financial statements and supporting records, including its assets, liabilities, transactions, accounting systems, valuations, and cash flows.
Tether reports $6.81B excess over liabilities
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the review involved more than checking the company’s reported reserve figures. He added, “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’s audited financial statements showed that its reserves exceeded its liabilities by $6.814 billion as of December 31, 2025.
CFO Simon McWilliams highlighted the figure in discussing the completed audit. He said, “Tether’s audited financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025 report reserves exceeding the liabilities by $6.814 billion.”
The figure represents the difference between Tether’s reported reserves and liabilities at the end of 2025. It is separate from the company’s more recent quarterly reserve figures.
Audit included physical gold inspection
The audit also covered Tether’s gold holdings. According to the company, KPMG physically counted and inspected each individual gold bar held by Tether and checked identifying information rather than relying solely on reports from custodians or counterparties.
The review also covered the assets making up Tether’s reserves and the liabilities associated with its issued tokens. This formed part of the broader audit process, which included testing of the company’s financial records and supporting documentation.
Tether started the audit process in March
The completed audit follows Tether’s March 2026 announcement that it had selected a Big Four accounting firm to conduct its first full financial statement audit.
The company said at the time that the review would cover its financial statements, reserves, controls and reporting systems. KPMG was subsequently identified as the firm carrying out the audit, with PwC involved in preparing Tether’s internal systems for the review.
Before the KPMG engagement, Tether primarily published periodic reserve attestations. Those reports provided independent assessments of the assets backing USD₮ at specific reporting dates but did not constitute a full audit of the company’s financial statements.
Audit follows Tether’s latest reserve disclosure
The completed audit comes shortly after Tether released its second-quarter financial update.
On July 31, the company reported $1.5 billion in net operating profit for Q2 2026 and said USD₮ circulation had reached approximately $184.6 billion as of June 30. Tether also reported more than 146 tons of physical gold among its holdings.
The Q2 figures were part of a reserve attestation prepared by BDO, while the KPMG engagement covers Tether’s full financial statements for the 2025 financial year.
The two disclosures therefore provide different levels of information: the quarterly attestations focus on reserve composition, while the KPMG audit examines the company’s broader financial reporting.
Stablecoin issuers face greater financial scrutiny
The audit comes as stablecoins become increasingly important across crypto trading, payments, remittances and dollar-based transactions. That growth has also increased scrutiny of stablecoin issuers, particularly around reserve management, liquidity and financial reporting.
The KPMG opinion provides an independently audited assessment of Tether’s 2025 financial statements, rather than relying solely on periodic reserve attestations. The longer-term question is whether full financial statement audits become a recurring part of Tether’s reporting as USD₮ circulation and the company’s broader financial operations evolve.
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