Report: Tether Hires KPMG for First Full Financial Audit of USDT Reserves

Tether Reported to Hire KPMG for First Full USDT Audit

The Financial Times reported connected Friday that KPMG is the steadfast selected to execute the audit, citing radical acquainted with the matter. Tether had announced the engagement 3 days earlier without naming the auditor, describing the process arsenic “the biggest ever inaugural audit successful the past of fiscal markets.”

The institution has besides reportedly retained PwC to assistance hole its interior systems, controls, and reporting up of the review. The audit covers Tether’s afloat equilibrium sheet, including U.S. Treasuries, currency equivalents, integer assets, and tokenized liabilities, on with interior controls, governance, hazard management, and compliance systems.

This goes good beyond the reserve attestations Tether has issued periodically since USDT launched successful 2014, astir precocious done BDO Italia connected a monthly and quarterly basis. Attestations corroborate a snapshot of reserves. They bash not represent a fiscal connection audit nether mostly accepted auditing standards.

USDT carries a marketplace capitalization supra $184 billion and is utilized by much than 550 cardinal radical globally. It functions arsenic a superior root of liquidity crossed crypto markets and ranks among the largest holders of U.S. Treasury securities extracurricular of sovereign governments.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said successful a statement: “Tether’s ngo has ever been to physique spot done action.” CFO Simon McWilliams, appointed successful aboriginal 2025 specifically to hole the institution for Big Four-level scrutiny, said the auditor was chosen done a competitory process and that the audit volition beryllium delivered.

The institution has faced sustained questions astir its reserves since astatine slightest 2021, erstwhile the New York Attorney General fined Tether $41 cardinal for misrepresenting the afloat dollar backing of USDT. Legal records from that play showed dense vulnerability to commercialized insubstantial and circumstantial counterparties. Tether has since shifted its reserve creation toward short-term U.S. Treasuries and has published quarterly transparency reports.

The KPMG engagement follows Tether’s broader propulsion into the U.S. market. In January 2026, Tether launched USAT, a stablecoin designed to comply with the GENIUS Act — the national stablecoin regulatory model signed into instrumentality successful July 2025. A afloat audit by a Big Four steadfast is wide expected to fulfill the reserve verification and reporting requirements the GENIUS Act imposes connected overseas stablecoin issuers seeking U.S. registration.

Separately, reports bespeak Tether has paused plans for a imaginable $20 cardinal equity raise, which had been discussed astatine a valuation adjacent $500 billion. Investors and bankers person pushed for audited financials earlier participating.

No timeline for completing oregon publishing the audited statements has been made public. Full audits involving crypto assets and tokenized liabilities typically instrumentality respective months. Tether said the process is already underway.

The dual engagement, KPMG handling the audit, PwC supporting interior readiness, signals that Tether is treating this arsenic a sustained compliance concern alternatively than a one-time exercise. Whether the finished audit confirms what its quarterly reports person agelong claimed remains to beryllium seen.

FAQ 🔎

• What is KPMG auditing for Tether? KPMG is conducting a afloat fiscal connection audit of Tether’s equilibrium sheet, reserves, interior controls, and compliance systems — not a elemental attestation.
• Why does this audit substance for USDT? It is the archetypal clip Tether has undergone Big Four-level scrutiny, which could fulfill U.S. regulatory requirements nether the GENIUS Act and boost organization confidence.
• What relation does PwC play successful Tether’s audit process? PwC was retained separately to fortify Tether’s interior systems and reporting up of the KPMG audit.
• When volition Tether’s KPMG audit results beryllium published? No completion day has been announced; audits of this complexity typically instrumentality respective months.