TLDR
- KPMG U.S. completed a full financial audit of Tether International for the year ended December 31, 2025
- The audit found Tether’s reserves exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion
- KPMG physically inspected and counted Tether’s gold bars as part of the process
- This is the first full audit Tether has completed, replacing years of quarterly attestations
- Tether’s USDT stablecoin now holds a $183 billion market cap, about 61% of the total stablecoin market
Tether, the company behind the USDT stablecoin, has completed its first ever full financial audit. KPMG U.S. carried out the review and issued a clean, unqualified opinion on Tether’s 2025 financial statements.
An incredible day ❤️
Tether has its financial audit by a big-four: KPMG US. https://t.co/sW3bmCQ6Tu— Paolo Ardoino 🤖 (@paoloardoino) August 13, 2026
The audit covered Tether’s balance sheet, income statement, and cash flows for the full year ending December 31, 2025. KPMG found the statements fairly presented the company’s financial position under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
Tether’s reserves exceeded its liabilities by $6.814 billion at year end, according to the audited statements.
A Step Beyond Attestations
For years, Tether had published quarterly attestations rather than full audits. An attestation checks specific data like reserve amounts at a given point in time. A full audit goes deeper, examining transactions, systems, counterparties, valuations, and ownership records.
KPMG also physically inspected and counted Tether’s gold bars. Auditors did not simply rely on custodian records.
This is a change from what critics had long called out. Tether is one of the largest financial companies in crypto, yet it had not undergone the kind of independent review common among firms of its size.
CEO Paolo Ardoino addressed the skeptics directly. “For years, some detractors said an audit of Tether could not be completed,” he said in a statement.
Tether’s Growing Footprint
USDT launched in 2014 and has grown into the dominant stablecoin. Its $183 billion market cap makes up about 61% of the total $301 billion stablecoin market. Its closest competitor, Circle’s USDC, holds around $72 billion.
Tether reported more than $10 billion in net profit in 2025. In the second quarter of this year, it posted $1.5 billion in net operating profit, driven mainly by income from U.S. Treasury holdings and repurchase agreements.
The company has been expanding beyond stablecoins. It invested $20 million each in Argentine neobank Ualá and Brazilian crypto platform Mercado Bitcoin. It also led a $50 million funding round for AI sleep technology company Eight Sleep.
Tether’s tokenized gold product, Tether Gold, has also grown. Physical reserves backing the product rose 9.5% in the second quarter. It is currently the largest tokenized commodity product, with around $2.7 billion in value.
Tether has become a large buyer of U.S. government debt as part of its reserve strategy. That position has grown alongside USDT’s expanding market cap.
Despite its size and profits, Ardoino has said the company has no plans to go public. In June 2025, he wrote on X: “No need to go public.”
KPMG confirmed it issued an unqualified opinion on Tether’s 2025 financials but declined to comment further, citing client confidentiality.
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