KPMG Issues Unqualified Audit Opinion on Tether's 2025 Financials
Key points
- KPMG U.S. issued an unqualified opinion on Tether International's financial statements for the full year ended 31 December 2025, Tether's first complete financial audit.
- Tether's reserves exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion as of year-end 2025, according to the audited statements.
- KPMG's scope included physical inspection and counting of Tether's gold bars, alongside review of transactions, systems, valuations, counterparties, and ownership records.
- The audit supersedes the quarterly attestation format Tether had used for years, which checked reserve composition at a point in time rather than testing the full financial picture.
- USDT has grown to over $180 billion in market capitalisation, with Tether holding significant US government debt as a reserve asset, giving the audit result systemic relevance beyond crypto markets.
Tether has completed its first full financial audit, with KPMG U.S. issuing an unqualified opinion on the stablecoin issuer’s financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025. The audit found that Tether’s reserves exceeded its liabilities by $6.814 billion, and KPMG’s scope extended well beyond the quarterly attestations Tether had previously published, encompassing transactions, counterparties, valuations, ownership records, systems, and a physical inspection of the company’s gold bars.
The distinction between an attestation and a full audit matters operationally. Attestations confirm specific point-in-time data, typically reserve composition and size; an audit tests the evidence underlying a company’s entire financial position, income, and cash flows. Tether had relied on the attestation format since settling an investigation with the New York Attorney General’s office, and the shift to a Big Four audit represents the first time its books have faced that broader standard of scrutiny.
For institutions holding or transacting in USDT, the audit removes one of the longest-standing due-diligence gaps in the stablecoin market. USDT’s market capitalisation has grown to over $180 billion, and Tether has become a significant buyer of US government debt as a reserve asset, meaning its stability carries systemic weight well beyond crypto-native trading. Whether KPMG’s full findings will be made public remains an open question, as Tether had not responded to a request to share the audit documentation at the time of publication.