Tether says KPMG issued 'clean' opinion in first full audit of USDT issuer's financials

Stablecoin issuer Tether said Thursday it has completed its first full independent financial statement audit, with KPMG U.S. issuing an "unqualified opinion" on the 2025 accounts of Tether International, S.A. de C.V.

Asked whether the audit covered all the financials of Tether's main entity, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino told The Block, "Tether International is the issuer of the USDT stablecoin."

An unqualified opinion, also called a "clean" opinion, is issued without reservations, exceptions, or caveats and is the most positive form of opinion that an independent auditor can issue, Tether said.

"We can confirm that we issued an unqualified opinion on Tether International, S.A. de C.V.'s financial statements in accordance with AICPA [The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants] standards for the year ending December 31, 2025," a KPMG U.S. spokesperson told The Block. "Due to client confidentiality, we have no further comment."

The news comes five months after Tether in March said it has appointed a Big Four accounting firm to complete its first financial audit, without naming the firm. The Financial Times, at the time citing anonymous sources, reported Tether hired KPMG to conduct an audit and that the company also hired PwC to help it ready its internal systems for the audit. Tether did not mention PwC in its Thursday announcement.

Tether (USDT) first promised a full financial audit in 2017, when it hired accounting firm Friedman LLP, but the relationship ended without one being completed. In the following years, Tether executives said a full audit was coming. In 2021, Tether paid $18.5 million to settle with the New York Attorney General over claims about its reserves and a $41 million CFTC fine over misleading statements that USDT was fully backed by U.S. dollars.

Tether later began publishing regular reserve attestations, now prepared by BDO Italia. Unlike a full financial audit, these reports provide a snapshot of Tether's reserves and liabilities at a specific point in time.

'Largest inaugural financial audit in history'

Tether described its first audit as the largest inaugural financial audit in history. The company said KPMG examined the transactions, systems, ownership records, valuations, counterparties, and underlying evidence supporting Tether International's financial position as of Dec. 31, 2025.

The audit covered the issuing entity's "complete financial statements," including its full balance sheet, including the assets composing the reserves and the liabilities represented by the issued token, as well as the income statement, change of equity, and cash flows statements, Tether said.

"Each area was subject to independent substantive testing and verification," the company noted. "As part of the process, KPMG physically counted and inspected every individual gold bar held by Tether, verifying the existence and identifying information of each bar rather than relying solely on reports from custodians or counterparties."

The audited financial statements reported that Tether's reserves exceeded its liabilities by $6.8 billion at the end of 2025, the company's chief financial officer Simon McWilliams said in a statement, who was appointed as the company's new CFO in early 2025.

"KPMG did not simply review a set of headline figures," Ardoino said. "KPMG conducted a full and thorough audit in accordance with AICPA standards – examining the assets, transactions, systems, documentation, and other evidence supporting our financial statements."

"People may describe this as the end of a long journey, but we see it as the beginning of the next one," he added.