Tether, an El Salvador-based fintech that issues the world’s largest stablecoin, announced in August that it had completed a full audit of its 2025 financial statements, the first in the company’s history. KPMG issued an unqualified opinion, which means the auditor concluded that the statements accurately represented Tether’s financial position in all material aspects under the US GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) standards.
Tether had previously published recurring attestations of the reserves backing its USDT digital tokens, which are pegged 1:1 to the US Dollar. Like many stablecoins, USDT is backed by a reserve of assets designed to maintain price stability. In this case, the attestation checks specified information at a point in time, while a financial audit examines the books, including transactions, assets, liabilities, income and cash flows.
Tether said that KPMG has examined its transactions, systems, valuations, counterparties, ownership records, and all supporting evidence to complete its first formal, independent financial audit, the goal being to resolve long-standing market doubts regarding the true asset backing and stability of the USDT stablecoin. The audited accounts reportedly showed reserves exceeding liabilities by $6.8 billion in the year ending December 31, 2025.
As the world’s largest stablecoin, the audit is expected to build confidence in the issuer’s reserves and in the broader market, making it especially relevant to exchanges, payment providers, fintechs, and other providers and institutions that work with digital assets. After all, a stablecoin promising redemption at a fixed value is heavily dependent on that confidence.
Reuters notes that the audit itself has not been made public. While a full audit is more rigorous than an attestation, public access ultimately determines how much additional scrutiny external parties are able to perform. CoinDesk also reported that it had asked Tether whether KPMG’s findings would be shared publicly but, at the time of writing, they had not received an answer. As such, the cryptocurrency sector must still rely on a press release, rather than verifiable raw data that could limit independent assessment of potential risks.
Nonetheless, Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, described the audit as “a defining moment for the stablecoin industry.” However, whether it becomes an industry-wide benchmark partly depends on what competing issuers and regulators demand next. If there is one unifying characteristic of the stablecoin market, it is competitive and regulatory unpredictability.
For other fintechs and traditional banking institutions considering offering stablecoin services, due diligence around reserve composition, issuer governance, redemption arrangements, and financial reporting remain as important as ever. As one of the “Big Four” global professional services networks, KPMG’s audit certainly raises the level of scrutiny that major counterparties may come to expect from large issuers, though that is not to suggest a new formal standard has already emerged.
The audit resolves the longstanding question of whether Tether would subject its complete financial statements to a Big Four audit. As for what comes next, attention can now shift toward public disclosure, whether such audits become recurring, and whether other major stablecoin issuers face pressure to obtain a similar audit.