KPMG completes Tether’s first full audit — but the audited accounts remain private
KPMG has issued an unqualified opinion on Tether’s 2025 financial statements, ending a years-long wait for a full audit. But neither the statements nor KPMG’s audit report has been released publicly
KPMG US has completed its audit of Tether International, S.A. de C.V.’s financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025 in accordance with AICPA standards. A spokesperson from the firm said that it had issued an unqualified opinion, but declined to comment further, citing client confidentiality.
Tether said the audit covered the full balance sheet, income statement, statement of changes in equity and cash flows, as well as transactions, systems, ownership records, valuations, counterparties and supporting evidence. Reportedly, KPMG also physically counted and inspected Tether’s individual gold bars.
An unqualified opinion means that KPMG has concluded that the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, Tether International’s financial position at the end of 2025 and its results and cash flows for the year in accordance with US generally accepted accounting principles.
But there is a significant limitation to the transparency provided to the public: neither the audited financial statements nor KPMG’s audit report has been published.
This appears to contradict the stance taken by Tether in March 2026 that its audit would provide “full visibility” into the strength and positioning of its reserves — independent scrutiny by an auditor and transparency to the market are not the same thing.
Instead of publishing the financial statements and audit report, Tether has disclosed selected results, announcing that the audited accounts show that reserves exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion at 31 December 2025.
The audit marks a significant change from Tether’s previous assurance arrangements. For years, the company had faced questions over the absence of a full audit and instead relied on attestations of its reserves, most recently performed by BDO.
In 2021, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined Tether $41 million after finding that it had made misleading statements about the backing of USDT during an earlier period and had falsely represented that it would undergo routine professional audits even though its reserves had not been audited.
The company has said it now intends to undergo a full financial statement audit annually, while continuing to publish its quarterly reserve attestations.
The completion of the audit therefore answers one of the longest-running questions surrounding Tether: whether it could obtain a full financial statement audit from a Big Four firm. What remains unavailable to USDT holders and the wider public are the documents themselves — the financial statements, their accompanying disclosures and KPMG’s audit report.
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