Tether has hired KPMG to conduct a full audit of the reserves backing its USDT stablecoin, marking its biggest step yet toward traditional‑grade transparency as it prepares a major push into the U.S. market. The engagement follows years of criticism over opaque reserve reporting and comes after Tether recently announced, without naming the firm, that a Big Four auditor would review its books.
Inside the Audit: What KPMG Is Actually Examining
KPMG will carry out Tether’s first full financial statement audit, going far beyond the quarterly attestations the company has published since 2022. The audit will examine assets, liabilities, internal controls, and the systems that track roughly $184 to $193 billion in reserves that support USDT and related tokens.
Tether says the work will cover a complex mix of short‑term U.S. Treasuries, cash, gold, bitcoin, and other investments, as well as tokenized liabilities issued across multiple blockchains. Company executives describe it as one of the largest inaugural audits ever attempted outside sovereign governments, given the size and structure of its balance sheet.
What Finally Pushed Tether to Act
The decision to name KPMG comes as Tether positions itself for a deeper presence in the United States, where new stablecoin laws and the GENIUS Act have opened doors for compliant issuers but also raised the bar on oversight. Analysts note that a Big Four audit could help Tether counter long‑running doubts about whether USDT stablecoins are fully backed and how liquid its reserves really are during stress events.
Tether has paid fines and faced investigations in New York and at the federal level over past misstatements and alleged gaps in its backing. Since then, it has leaned on attestations from smaller firms to reassure markets, but critics argued that only a top‑tier audit would truly reset the conversation with regulators, banks, and institutional users.
USDT remains the world’s largest stablecoin, with a market cap near $185 billion and hundreds of millions of users worldwide, according to Tether. A clean KPMG audit would not end all regulatory questions, but it could make it easier for U.S. institutions to justify greater use of USDT in trading, payments, and settlement.
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