Tether KPMG Audit: USDT Issuer Gets Its First Clean Full Audit

Short answer: On August 13, 2026, Tether announced that KPMG U.S. had issued an unqualified ("clean") audit opinion on its financial statements for 2025, the first full audit in the USDT issuer's history. The audit puts Tether's reserves at $6.8 billion above its liabilities at the end of 2025. It answers the oldest question about USDT, but only for that date.

What happened

KPMG audited Tether International, S.A. de C.V., the entity that issues USDT, for the financial year ending December 31, 2025. The audit covered the full set of financial statements: balance sheet, income statement, changes in equity and cash flows. According to Tether, the auditor checked transactions, systems, ownership records, valuations and counterparties. It did not rely only on confirmations from custodians.

• Opinion: unqualified, meaning the auditor found that the statements present the company's position fairly in all material respects, with no reservations.
• Excess reserves: $6.814 billion of assets above liabilities, mostly to USDT holders, at year-end 2025.
• Gold: KPMG physically counted and inspected every gold bar Tether holds.
• Profit: Cointelegraph reports that Tether earned more than $10 billion in net profit in 2025, driven largely by interest on U.S. Treasury bills.

USDT is by far the largest stablecoin, a token designed to keep a stable value against the U.S. dollar. Its market capitalization is about $183 billion, around 61% of a $301 billion stablecoin market and more than twice the size of Circle's USDC.

Why the Tether audit matters after years of doubt

Until now Tether published attestations prepared by BDO Italia. An attestation is a snapshot: it confirms that assets matched liabilities on a single date. A full audit tests the whole year and the controls behind the figures.

The gap between the two has shaped Tether's reputation for almost a decade:

1. In 2017 Tether hired Friedman LLP for an audit; the relationship ended without one being completed.
2. In 2021 it paid $18.5 million to settle with the New York Attorney General over claims about its reserves, and a $41 million fine to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for misleading statements.
3. In March 2026 it appointed a Big Four firm, and the result arrived in August.

For institutions, a clean Big Four opinion removes a long-standing reason to avoid USDT. That matters more now that U.S. stablecoin rules are being written under the GENIUS Act, and every issuer that wants to serve regulated markets needs audited accounts.

What the audit does not cover

The audit covers the position on December 31, 2025. Tether's balance sheet has changed since then, because it holds large amounts of bitcoin and gold that are marked to market every quarter.

In the second quarter of 2026, bitcoin and gold each fell by more than 10%, and Tether reported a sharp drop in excess reserves. At the end of June it held about $5.8 billion in bitcoin and $18.8 billion in gold. Those holdings are the main reason the buffer moves so much. USDT is still backed mainly by short-term U.S. government debt, but the cushion above 1:1 backing depends on volatile assets.

An audit also does not remove the other risks of a centralized stablecoin. Tether can freeze addresses, is subject to sanctions and law-enforcement requests, and relies on banks and custodians to hold reserves.

What it means for you

• USDT's credibility has improved, but it is not risk-free. A clean audit reduces the chance that the reserves are simply not there. It does not protect against a fall in asset values or a frozen address.
• Keep checking quarterly reports. The excess-reserve buffer is the number to watch, and it can swing by billions within a quarter.
• Consider splitting large balances between USDT and another major stablecoin, so one issuer is not a single point of failure. Our explainer on what a stablecoin is covers the main types.
• Pick the network carefully. The same USDT on TRON, Ethereum or BNB Chain carries very different fees. See which USDT network to choose.

Key takeaways

• KPMG U.S. issued a clean audit opinion on Tether's 2025 financial statements, announced on August 13, 2026.
• Reserves exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion at December 31, 2025, and KPMG counted every gold bar.
• It is Tether's first full audit, after years of BDO attestations and a failed 2017 attempt with Friedman LLP.
• Excess reserves have since fluctuated, down to $4.1 billion at June 30, 2026, because of bitcoin and gold holdings.

If you hold other tokens and want to move into USDT or another stablecoin, the guide to converting altcoins to stablecoins explains how to keep costs down.

Sources: Tether, The Block, Cointelegraph