Tether, the company behind the world's largest stablecoin, says it has finally completed a full financial audit conducted by a major accounting firm — a milestone the company has promised for years but never delivered until now.
A Long-Awaited Milestone
The issuer of USDT, which has roughly $180 billion in circulation, announced that KPMG's U.S. arm carried out a comprehensive examination of its books. According to Tether, the review went beyond simply scrutinizing digital records, with auditors even physically counting the company's gold reserves as part of the process.
For years, critics and regulators have pressed Tether to submit to a full audit from one of the so-called "Big Four" accounting firms. Until now, the company had relied on attestation reports, which provide a snapshot of reserves at a given moment but fall short of the rigorous standards of a complete financial audit.
After years of skepticism, Tether says its books have finally passed the scrutiny of a Big Four firm.
Why It Matters
Stablecoins like USDT are designed to maintain a one-to-one peg with the U.S. dollar, and their reliability hinges on whether issuers actually hold sufficient reserves to back every token in circulation. Tether's dominant position in the market has made questions about its reserves a persistent point of concern across the crypto industry.
The completion of a KPMG audit could help bolster confidence in Tether at a time when regulators worldwide are sharpening their focus on stablecoin oversight. A verified accounting of the assets backing USDT addresses one of the longest-running criticisms leveled against the company.
Key aspects of the audit reportedly included:
- A review conducted by KPMG's U.S. division
- A physical count of Tether's gold bar holdings
- An examination of the reserves backing the $180 billion in outstanding USDT
The move arrives as competition in the stablecoin sector intensifies and as governments push for clearer rules governing dollar-pegged digital assets, making transparency an increasingly important differentiator for issuers.