Tether has cleared a major transparency milestone: KPMG U.S. issued an unqualified (clean) opinion on the company’s 2025 financial statements after a full-year audit of Tether International, S.A. de C.V., with auditors finding a $6.814 billion surplus of reserves over liabilities at Dec. 31, 2025. What KPMG audited - KPMG reviewed Tether’s full 2025 financial statements — balance sheet, income statement, statement of changes in equity and cash flow — prepared under U.S. GAAP. The firm examined the company’s financial position at year‑end and its results and cash flows for the entire year, rather than issuing a single-date reserve attestation. - The audit included tests of records underpinning individual balance-sheet items: transactions, internal systems, asset ownership, valuations, counterparties and supporting documents. - Auditors also physically inspected Tether’s gold holdings, counting each bar and verifying identifying information instead of relying solely on custodian reports. Context and process - Tether began the full audit process in March 2025 after appointing a Big Four firm; CFO Simon McWilliams — hired in early 2025 to build the finance infrastructure needed for a full audit — later helped steer the engagement that identified KPMG as the auditor. - Tether described the engagement as the largest inaugural financial audit in history; KPMG’s opinion, however, is narrowly focused on whether the 2025 statements were presented fairly in all material respects under U.S. GAAP. How this differs from prior reserve reports - Tether has published independent reserve attestations for years, but those are narrower in scope, typically addressing management’s asset/liability presentation at a single reporting date. The KPMG engagement examined accounts and underlying evidence across a full financial year. - The $6.814 billion surplus reported in the audited 2025 statements is distinct from the reserve figures Tether disclosed in its 2026 quarterly attestations. Recent balance-sheet and reserve snapshot (post‑audit) - Q1 2026: Tether reported $191.8 billion in assets and $8.23 billion in excess reserves. - Q2 2026 attestation (BDO, July 31): assets of $187.75 billion vs. liabilities of $183.64 billion; second‑quarter net operating profit around $1.5 billion and an excess reserve cushion that fell to $4.11 billion. - USDT supply was about $184.6 billion at end‑June, and the token accounted for over 60% of the global stablecoin market. Assets and composition changes - Tether’s asset mix changed after the audited year: by Q2 2026 reported holdings included roughly 146.2 metric tons of physical gold and 98,933 BTC, with a reduction in secured lending exposure. - For its XAUT token, Tether reported roughly 707,747 fine troy ounces of gold as of March 31, 2026 (up from about 520,000 ounces at year‑end 2025); earlier Tether Gold totals valued the bullion reserves at over $3.3 billion. Regulatory implications - The audit’s use of U.S. GAAP offers a familiar accounting benchmark for U.S. investors and counterparties, but an unqualified opinion does not itself determine compliance with U.S. stablecoin law or guarantee continued listings on U.S. trading platforms. - The GENIUS Act — signed into law in July 2025 — sets federal rules for payment stablecoin issuers, including reserve, disclosure and supervisory obligations. Tether operates USDT through an issuer outside the United States, so how foreign stablecoin issuers are treated under implementing rules will affect U.S. access. Observers note some obligations may take until 2028 to phase in; federal agencies are still finalizing rules. - Tether says it intends to comply with the law. U.S. market strategy - Alongside USDT, Tether has launched USAT, a separate dollar-backed token designed for the American market. USAT is issued under a U.S.-regulated structure by Anchorage Digital Bank, with Cantor Fitzgerald as reserve custodian. Bottom line Tether’s clean audit from KPMG on its 2025 statements is a notable step toward greater financial transparency, confirming a multi‑billion reserve surplus and subjecting the company’s accounts and supporting evidence to full professional scrutiny. That audit strengthens Tether’s public disclosures, but regulatory outcomes and implementation timelines under U.S. stablecoin law will still shape the issuer’s access to U.S. markets going forward. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news