Tether has passed a major transparency milestone: KPMG U.S. has issued an unqualified (clean) audit opinion on the company’s 2025 financial statements for Tether International, S.A. de C.V., concluding that the accounts “present fairly, in all material respects” under U.S. GAAP. The audit — which KPMG conducted under applicable U.S. professional and AICPA standards — covered the balance sheet, income statement, statement of changes in equity and cash flows for the full year ended Dec. 31, 2025, not just a single-date reserve snapshot. Why this matters - Scope and rigor: Unlike prior reserve attestations, KPMG examined Tether’s year-long financial position, operations and cash flows, tested records supporting individual balance-sheet entries, reviewed transactions, internal systems, valuations, counterparties and documentation, and verified asset ownership. - Physical gold verification: Auditors physically counted every gold bar backing Tether’s XAUT token and checked identifying information rather than relying solely on custodian records. - Clean result: KPMG attached no qualifications, exceptions or reservations to its opinion — commonly called an “unqualified” or clean audit — based on the evidence it reviewed for 2025. Key figures and timing - Reserve surplus: The audited statements show reserves exceeded token-related liabilities by $6.814 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025. - Process: Tether began the full-audit process in March 2026 after hiring a Big Four firm for initial reviews; KPMG was later named as the auditor. CFO Simon McWilliams, who joined Tether in early 2025 to build out its finance function, led the effort to complete the audit. - User and market scale: At the time the audit process began, Tether said USDT had a market capitalization above $184 billion and 550+ million users; it now reports a user base exceeding 650 million, primarily in emerging markets. Recent attestations and asset moves (post-audit) - Q1 2026: Tether reported $191.8 billion in assets and $8.23 billion in excess reserves. - Q2 2026 (BDO attestation, July 31): assets of $187.75 billion vs. liabilities of $183.64 billion — an excess cushion of about $4.11 billion. Reported Q2 net operating profit was roughly $1.5 billion. USDT supply was about $184.6 billion at end-June, accounting for over 60% of the global stablecoin market. - Asset composition: Tether has continued to shift holdings after 2025 — the Q2 attestation listed about 146.2 metric tons of physical gold and 98,933 BTC, and showed a reduction in secured lending exposure. - XAUT bullion: Tether reported roughly 707,747 fine troy ounces backing XAUT as of March 31, 2026, up from ~520,000 ounces at end-2025; previous valuations put Tether Gold bullion at more than $3.3 billion. Context on regulation and limits of the audit - Accounting vs. legal compliance: KPMG’s U.S. GAAP audit gives U.S. investors and counterparties a familiar accounting basis for assessment, but an unqualified audit opinion does not by itself determine whether USDT complies with U.S. stablecoin law or meets conditions for U.S. exchange listings. - GENIUS Act: The federal stablecoin framework passed in July 2025 imposes reserve, disclosure and supervisory rules; many implementing regulations remain to be finalized. Because Tether issues USDT from a non-U.S. entity, questions about foreign issuer obligations (such as compliance with lawful freeze/seizure orders) affect access to U.S. centralized exchanges. Some transition dates extend into 2028, and Tether has said it intends to comply. - U.S.-focused product: Tether has also launched USAT, a dollar-backed token designed for the American market issued by Anchorage Digital Bank with Cantor Fitzgerald as reserve custodian. Tether’s take Tether described the engagement as the largest inaugural financial audit in history and emphasized that KPMG’s work went beyond headline reserve figures to examine systems, transactions and supporting evidence. KPMG’s opinion is limited to the audited 2025 statements and the evidence it examined; subsequent attestations and market developments reflect changes after that year-end. Bottom line: The KPMG unqualified opinion marks a significant transparency step for Tether and for the broader stablecoin sector, but it does not replace regulatory determinations or future attestations — and Tether’s reserves and asset mix continue to evolve across 2026. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news