KPMG’s Clean Bill Boosts Credibility
For the first time in its history, Tether has completed a comprehensive independent audit of its financial statements, with KPMG U.S.—one of the world’s “Big Four” accounting firms—delivering an unqualified opinion for the company’s 2025 annual results. This clean bill of health marks a significant shift for Tether, which previously relied on quarterly attestations rather than full audits to reassure users about its reserves. The audit scrutinized every aspect of Tether’s finances, including assets, liabilities, income streams, cash flows, and internal controls.
KPMG’s process went beyond paperwork: auditors physically counted and inspected each gold bar held by Tether, verifying their serial numbers and existence as part of the review. The result? Tether’s reserves were found to exceed its outstanding liabilities by $6.8 billion as of the audit date.
On paper, this is a dramatic contrast to Tether’s past regulatory troubles. In 2021, the company paid an $18.5 million settlement to New York and a $41 million fine to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over previous misrepresentations about its reserve backing.
KPMG’s audit included a physical inspection of every gold bar, each verified by serial number during the 2025 review.
Tether Surpasses Liabilities by Billions
The audit revealed that Tether holds enough assets to cover all outstanding USDT tokens in circulation, with a cushion of $6.8 billion above its liabilities. This figure is especially notable given USDT’s current market capitalization of $183 billion—making it not only the largest stablecoin but also accounting for roughly 61% of the $301 billion stablecoin market.
In addition to fiat reserves and gold holdings, Tether has made substantial investments in 2025: it allocated $20 million each into Latin American fintech Ualá and Brazilian crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin, and led a $50 million funding round for Eight Sleep. These moves indicate that Tether is not just holding reserves but actively deploying capital across sectors.
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From Attestations to Full Transparency
Prior to this audit, Tether only published quarterly attestations—limited reviews that provided snapshots rather than comprehensive scrutiny. The step up to a full audit required months of internal preparation; in March 2024, Tether hired KPMG for the task while bringing in PwC to help overhaul internal systems and recordkeeping.
This marks a practical shift from selective disclosure to full-scale transparency.
KPMG’s review included not just asset verification but also deep dives into counterparties and supporting documentation for every line item on the balance sheet. The firm also examined how Tether manages risk and tracks funds internally—a level of detail that exceeds any previous public accounting of Tether’s finances.
$10 Billion Net Profit Reported
Beyond balance sheet strength, Tether reported more than $10 billion in net profit for 2025—a figure driven largely by earnings from U.S. Treasury holdings and repurchase agreements. In Q2 alone, net operating profit reached $1.5 billion according to cointelegraph.com, underscoring how rising interest rates have turned reserve management into a lucrative business.
Despite this profitability, some questions remain unaddressed: while third-party data estimates that Tether holds nearly $60 billion in Bitcoin as part of its reserves, these Bitcoin holdings were not specifically mentioned in the company’s statement about the audit.
Why It Matters
For users and institutions relying on USDT for trading or remittances, KPMG’s sign-off provides new assurance that each token is backed by real assets—at least as of the audited period. After years of controversy over opaque disclosures and regulatory fines dating back to 2021, this audit may help restore trust among skeptics who questioned whether USDT was fully reserved at all times.
Still, some observers will likely want more frequent or ongoing audits before declaring full confidence in Tether’s operations. The company remains based in San Salvador and continues to hold more U.S. Treasuries than some nation-states—a scale that raises further questions about systemic risk if anything goes wrong.
Will this audit be enough to satisfy regulators and market participants ? That remains uncertain—but it sets a concrete benchmark against which future disclosures can be measured.
Factors that could still shift
If Tether publicly clarifies the status of its nearly $60 billion in Bitcoin reserves, which were not mentioned in its 2025 audited statement by KPMG, immediate scrutiny could follow regarding the completeness of the audit’s coverage and Tether’s reserve disclosures.
