Tether Completes First Full Financial Audit With KPMG U.S.

Tether has completed its first full independent financial audit. KPMG U.S. issued an unqualified opinion on the 2025 financial statements of Tether International, S.A. de C.V., the entity responsible for issuing USDT. The company said the audited statements showed reserves exceeding liabilities by $6.814 billion at Dec. 31, 2025.

The result marks a departure from Tether’s previous reliance on periodic reserve attestations. KPMG examined the company’s financial statements and supporting evidence, including transactions, systems, valuations, counterparties and ownership records. Auditors also physically inspected and counted Tether’s gold bars, according to Tether.

The announcement is important for USDT because the stablecoin has grown into one of the largest sources of dollar liquidity in cryptocurrency markets. Meanwhile, questions about the composition and verification of its reserves have persisted for years.

What the Tether KPMG Audit Actually Covered

The Tether KPMG audit covered Tether International’s financial statements for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025. KPMG U.S. issued an unqualified opinion. This means the auditor concluded that the financial statements fairly presented the company’s financial position, operating results and cash flows in all material respects under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

KPMG separately confirmed the opinion to CoinDesk, saying it had issued an unqualified opinion on Tether International’s 2025 financial statements in accordance with AICPA standards. The firm declined further comment, citing client confidentiality.

That distinction matters. An audit is broader than the quarterly reserve attestations Tether has historically published. Those attestations provide assurance over selected reserve information at a particular reporting date. In contrast, a financial-statement audit examines the company’s broader accounting records and statements.

The Defiant reported that the audited entity is specifically Tether International, S.A. de C.V., rather than every company within the broader Tether group. It also noted that Tether has not published the audited financial statements or KPMG’s opinion letter.

The $6.814 Billion Reserve Cushion

The headline financial figure from the audit is the reported $6.814 billion gap between reserves and liabilities at the end of 2025. Tether CFO Simon McWilliams said the figure confirms the quality of the company’s public reserve reporting.

There is an important historical comparison.

Tether’s BDO reserve attestation for Dec. 31, 2025 showed approximately $6.3 billion in excess reserves. The Defiant calculated that the KPMG-audited figure was about $476 million higher. However, the two figures were prepared under different accounting frameworks: the BDO reserve report used IFRS-based criteria, while the KPMG audit used U.S. GAAP.

That difference should not be treated as evidence that either report is incorrect. It demonstrates why comparing an attestation and a financial-statement audit requires attention to accounting methodology. It also shows the importance of the headline reserve figure.

The audited cushion also should not be confused with Tether’s latest reserve position.

In its June 30, 2026 quarterly report, Tether reported $187.75 billion in assets against $183.64 billion in liabilities, leaving a $4.11 billion buffer. That was down from the $8.23 billion reserve cushion reported at the end of March.

Using those published figures, the cushion declined by about 39.7% between the Dec. 31, 2025 audited figure and June 30, 2026. That does not invalidate the audit; it illustrates that Tether’s financial position continues to change after the audited reporting period.

Why The Audit Matters for USDT And Stablecoins

Tether’s move addresses one of the industry’s longest-running transparency issues: the difference between demonstrating that reserves exist at a reporting date and subjecting a company’s broader financial statements to an independent audit.

USDT has expanded to more than $180 billion in market capitalization, according to CoinDesk, making the financial condition of its issuer relevant well beyond Tether itself. USDT is widely used as trading liquidity, collateral and a dollar-denominated settlement asset across cryptocurrency markets.

The audit therefore gives institutional counterparties, exchanges and other market participants a stronger piece of external assurance than Tether’s previous reserve attestations provided.

The development also arrives as U.S. stablecoin regulation places greater emphasis on audited financial reporting. The GENIUS Act requires permitted payment stablecoin issuers with more than $50 billion in outstanding issuance to prepare annual financial statements and have them audited by a registered public accounting firm under applicable PCAOB standards. These audited statements must also be made publicly available.

However, Tether’s newly completed audit was conducted under AICPA standards, not PCAOB standards, and the audited entity is Tether International. The Defiant noted that Tether International is not itself a permitted U.S. stablecoin issuer under the GENIUS Act framework.

That means the audit should not automatically be described as proof that Tether has satisfied every future U.S. regulatory requirement for offering USDT in the United States.

What Remains Unverified or Unresolved

The biggest limitation is public access to the underlying audit.

Tether announced the result and KPMG confirmed the unqualified opinion, but Tether has not published the complete audited financial statements or KPMG’s opinion letter. As a result, outside readers cannot independently examine the full balance sheet, notes, accounting policies and audit disclosures behind the headline figures.

That is particularly relevant because Tether’s reserve portfolio contains assets beyond cash and short-term U.S. government securities, including gold, bitcoin and secured loans. The audit provides assurance over the financial statements for the specified entity and period. However, it does not eliminate the need to monitor how that balance sheet evolves after Dec. 31, 2025.

The June 2026 reserve report already illustrates that point: Tether’s reported reserve cushion had fallen to $4.11 billion by June 30, while its gold holdings had increased and bitcoin holdings had declined, according to The Defiant’s analysis of Tether’s reporting.

The appropriate interpretation is therefore narrower than a blanket claim that KPMG has permanently validated every aspect of Tether’s reserve structure. KPMG has provided an unqualified opinion on Tether International’s 2025 financial statements.

What Happens Next

The next major transparency test is whether Tether publishes the audited statements and supporting disclosures. Doing so would allow investors, researchers and regulators to examine the accounting presentation. That way, they need not rely primarily on the company’s announcement of the audit result.

The market will also have to watch how Tether’s reserve cushion develops during 2026. The difference between the $6.814 billion audited cushion at the end of 2025 and the $4.11 billion reported six months later shows why an audit is a point-in-time assessment of a defined reporting period. It is not a permanent guarantee of future solvency or reserve composition.

For Tether, completing the audit removes a long-standing obstacle to institutional credibility. The next question is whether the company can turn that one-time milestone into a continuing standard of public financial disclosure as stablecoin regulation becomes more demanding.