Tether Wraps Up Record First Full Audit by KPMG US; Reserves Top Liabilities by $6.814B

BlockBeats reported that on Aug. 14, Tether, the issuer of USDT, said it has completed a full independent audit of its fiscal 2025 financial statements by KPMG US and received an unqualified opinion, the highest level of assurance an external auditor can provide. Tether described the engagement as the "largest first-time financial audit in history." KPMG performed extensive substantive testing across Tether's balance sheet, reserve asset composition, issued token liabilities, income statement, statement of changes in equity and cash flow statement. As part of the work, KPMG physically counted each gold bar held by Tether to verify both existence and identifying details, rather than relying only on custodian reports. The audit found that as of Dec. 31, 2025, Tether's reserves exceeded its liabilities by $6.814 billion. CEO Paolo Ardoino said critics had long claimed a Tether audit could not be completed and called the unqualified opinion a "clean audit." CFO Simon McWilliams described the result as a milestone in Tether's transparency efforts, adding that the company completed the project in collaboration with Big Four accounting firms and plans to keep raising its standards. Tether has published independent reserve attestation reports for years; the fiscal 2025 audit marks a shift from attestation-level reporting to a full financial statement audit framework.