The entity behind the world’s largest stablecoin has announced that KPMG U.S. issued an unqualified audit opinion on the financial statements of Tether International, S.A. de C.V. for the year ended December 31, 2025. This is the first full financial statement audit in the history of the company behind USDT.

An unqualified opinion carries no reservations, exceptions, or caveats, and is the strongest conclusion an independent auditor can reach. This means KPMG examined the balance sheet, income statement, statement of changes in equity, and cash flow statement under US generally accepted accounting principles, with each area subject to independent substantive testing. The audited statements report reserves exceeding liabilities by $6.81 billion.

KPMG physically counted and inspected every individual gold bar Tether holds, verifying its existence and identifying information. Tether said the procedure went beyond the reports supplied by custodians and counterparties.

The Attestations And The Audit

Tether has provided regular independent attestations of its backing assets for years, but an attestation just checks reserves at a point in time, while the KPMG engagement covered the full financial statements.

Back in 2022, BDO Italia replaced MHA Cayman on the reserves reports, a move Tether called “the next step in the company’s path toward a complete audit.” BDO still prepares the quarterly reports, among them the Q1 2026 attestation showing a record $8.23 billion excess reserve buffer.

Tether had also completed a SOC 2 Type 1 examination covering IT and security controls in 2024, but that examination stopped at the controls and never reached the financial statements.

Moreover, those quarterly figures sit outside KPMG’s opinion. Tether’s most recent attestation covered the second quarter of 2026 and reported $1.5 billion in net operating profit, roughly $184.6 billion of USDT issued, and more than 146 tons of gold.

Tether’s Long History With Regulators

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined Tether $41 million in October 2021, finding the company held sufficient fiat reserves to back USDT in circulation for only 27.6% of the days in a 26-month sample from 2016 through 2018.

The order also found Tether had told customers and the market that every token was backed by an equivalent amount of corresponding fiat currency, while its reserves included unsecured receivables and non-fiat assets.

“For years, some detractors said an audit of Tether could not be completed. They said the Company refused to subject itself to the most rigorous scrutiny. We have once again proven them wrong. Completing our financial statement audit sets a new standard for the industry and reflects the leadership we’ve brought to this market from the start,” said Paolo Ardoino, Chief Executive Officer of Tether.

Tether announced signing with a Big Four auditor earlier this year and described the completed engagement as the largest inaugural financial audit in history.

Source: CryptoPotato