Tether has moved to put a new layer of third-party scrutiny around its finances, completing an independent audit of its annual financial statements. KPMG US issued a clean, or “unqualified,” opinion on Tether’s 2025 accounts, covering the company’s balance sheet, income statement, and cash flows for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025.
In its announcement, Tether said the audited results show reserves exceeding liabilities by $6.814 billion, and it emphasized that the engagement went beyond its long-running quarterly reserve attestations by examining broader financial statements and supporting evidence.
Key takeaways
- KPMG US issued an unqualified opinion on Tether’s 2025 annual financial statements under US accounting standards.
- The audit covered assets backing issued tokens and the liabilities those tokens represent, including transactions, systems, and ownership records.
- Tether reported that reserves exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion in the audited period.
- KPMG’s work included physical inspection and counting of Tether’s gold holdings, not just reliance on custodian documentation.
A full annual audit replaces “attestation” level scrutiny
For years, Tether has published quarterly reserve attestations intended to provide visibility into the backing of its stablecoin. The new audit is designed to be broader and more demanding: rather than focusing only on reserve composition at a point in time, KPMG reviewed the company’s full annual financial statements and the underlying materials that support them.
According to Tether, the independent review examined not only the balances reflected on the statements, but also the evidence behind them—such as transaction records, valuations, counterparties, and internal systems used to produce the financial reporting. Tether said the audit subjected the company’s year-end financial position to examination in the same way an external auditor would assess any public-facing US financial report.
Under the audit’s findings, KPMG concluded that Tether’s financial statements fairly present the company’s financial position, results, and cash flows “in all material respects,” using US accounting standards—an outcome typically read by markets as a strong baseline for reporting reliability.
What the audit found: reserves over liabilities
Tether’s announcement ties the audit’s headline takeaway to a simple balance-sheet relationship: it reported that audited reserves exceeded audited liabilities by $6.814 billion for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025.
While the specific arithmetic is confined to the audited statements themselves, the practical implication is straightforward for readers following stablecoin solvency narratives: an independent auditor reviewed the accounts and did not issue qualifications that would suggest material misstatement under the applicable framework.
Tether also indicated that the audit covered key components investors often track in stablecoins—namely, how the assets held by the issuer relate to the liabilities created by issued tokens.
Physical verification of gold highlights a key diligence point
One notable detail Tether highlighted is that KPMG physically inspected and counted Tether’s gold holdings as part of the audit. Tether said the verification process involved checking each bar, rather than depending solely on records from custodians.
In the context of stablecoins that hold commodity exposures, this kind of verification matters because it reduces reliance on third-party documentation in isolation. Instead, it introduces an additional layer of direct confirmation tied to the asset itself—particularly relevant when discussions about reserve transparency can otherwise focus on what is visible on paper versus what is independently verifiable.
Why the audit matters for stablecoin users and markets
Since launching USDt (USDT) in 2014, Tether has grown into one of crypto’s dominant financial rails. The stablecoin remains the core of the company’s business, and its market size is frequently cited as a key driver of stablecoin liquidity across exchanges and on-chain markets.
The scale of Tether’s footprint is reinforced by broader market metrics. According to DefiLlama data cited in the article, USDT’s market capitalization is roughly $183 billion, representing about 61% of the total stablecoin market of roughly $301 billion. The same comparison puts Circle’s USDC at roughly $72 billion in market capitalization.
In that environment, an annual independent audit can be more than a compliance step—it can affect how counterparties, institutional allocators, and auditors approach risk management. Quarterly attestations help, but a full annual audit is typically seen as a higher standard because it focuses on financial statements holistically rather than only on reserve snapshots.
Tether has also continued to expand its broader business beyond plain stablecoins. In 2025, Tether reported more than $10 billion in net profit, and it has disclosed additional activity tied to tokenized gold products (Tether Gold, XAUt) and other investments. These moves matter because they increase the range of claims investors might want to understand through consistent, auditable reporting.
At the same time, Tether’s executives have not signaled a near-term plan to list the company publicly. The article notes that in June 2025, CEO Paolo Ardoino posted on X, “No need to go public,” in response to speculation about a potential IPO. For markets, that context can influence expectations: if the issuer doesn’t pursue public-market scrutiny, an annual audited statement can function as an alternative transparency anchor.
What to watch next
With KPMG’s unqualified opinion now attached to Tether’s 2025 annual accounts, the next question for investors and stablecoin users is whether future years continue to follow the same audited approach and how Tether’s audited reserve picture evolves as its product lineup grows. In the meantime, the combination of physical asset verification and a full-statement audit offers a clearer baseline for assessing the issuer’s reported financial health.
