Daily Crypto Briefs 
CASABLANCA, Aug. 13, 2026
Tether said Thursday that KPMG U.S. completed a full audit of Tether International’s 2025 financial statements and issued an unqualified opinion, a step the stablecoin issuer said showed $6.814 billion more reserves than liabilities at year-end.
The audit covered the year ended Dec. 31, 2025 and was conducted under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, according to Tether’s announcement. An unqualified opinion means the auditor concluded the financial statements were fairly presented, in all material respects, under the applicable accounting framework.
The result is meaningful because it moves beyond the reserve attestations that Tether has published regularly. Tether said KPMG examined transactions, systems, ownership records, valuations, counterparties and supporting evidence. The company also said KPMG physically counted and inspected every individual gold bar it held.
It does not, however, turn a Dec. 31, 2025 audit into a real-time reserve statement. Tether said it would keep publishing its ongoing reserve reporting; readers assessing USDT today should distinguish the historical audit from the issuer’s current transparency information.
The disclosure arrives while stablecoin competition is intensifying in payments and tokenized markets. Daily Crypto Briefs recently reported that USDC surpassed Tether in Visa’s stablecoin-volume measure, a reminder that reserve reporting is only one of several factors shaping issuer competition.
Tether USDt
USDTKPMG Audit Turns Tether’s Long Promise Into a Signed Opinion
Tether first said in March that it had formally engaged a Big Four accounting firm for its first full audit. Its engagement announcement described the forthcoming work as an audit of financial statements, rather than another assurance report on selected reserve data.
Thursday’s announcement says that work is complete. Tether identified the audited entity as Tether International, S.A. de C.V. and said KPMG U.S. issued the unqualified opinion after reviewing the company’s 2025 financial statements.
That distinction matters in a market where “audit” and “attestation” are often used interchangeably. An attestation can provide assurance on a defined subject matter at a specified date. A financial-statement audit is designed to support an auditor’s opinion on a broader set of statements covering a period, including evidence behind reported balances and transactions.
The company said its regular reporting continues, so the audit is an added disclosure layer rather than a substitute for current reserve reports. It also did not disclose the full audit report alongside the announcement. The figures and scope in this article are therefore attributed to Tether’s published account of the engagement and its result.
KPMG’s audit opinion does not answer every question a USDT holder may have. It does not itself establish the current value of every asset, address future redemption pressure or promise a one-to-one market price at every venue. It does give the issuer a more formal historical accounting result than its prior point-in-time attestations.
Tether Reports $6.814 Billion More Reserves Than Liabilities
Tether said audited reserves exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025. That is the central number in Thursday’s announcement, and it is a year-end balance-sheet measure rather than a fresh count of circulating tokens or an intraday reserve figure.
The issuer previously reported a $6.3 billion reserve buffer in its fourth-quarter 2025 attestation. The new figure should not be read as a like-for-like quarterly update: it comes from the completed annual audit and uses the scope Tether described for that engagement.
Gold was one tangible part of the review. Tether said KPMG physically counted and inspected each gold bar it held, an unusual detail for a digital-asset issuer whose collateral discussion is frequently centered on cash-equivalent holdings. The company has also been expanding its gold-related footprint, including the XAUT token that Daily Crypto Briefs covered after its Shariah certification.
The surplus is not the same thing as the entire reserve portfolio. It is the amount by which reported reserves exceeded reported liabilities at the audit date. The announcement did not provide a new real-time composition table, and it should not be used to infer changes to the issuer’s holdings after year-end.
For users, the practical takeaway is narrower but important: Tether says an independent auditor reviewed a wider body of evidence than in an attestation and reached an unqualified conclusion on the 2025 statements. The new reserve-surplus figure gives that assertion a concrete balance-sheet scale.
Audit Adds Disclosure Pressure to the Stablecoin Race
The timing gives Tether a new disclosure benchmark as stablecoin issuers compete for institutional use, payment flows and tokenized-asset settlement. The issuer’s Hadron platform has also been pitched for tokenization projects, a business where counterparties may examine governance and reserve disclosures as closely as product features.
The audit can strengthen an issuer’s case with those counterparties, but it is not a regulatory license and it does not settle policy debates over stablecoin oversight. Rules differ by jurisdiction, and an auditor’s opinion is separate from a supervisor’s examination, a banking charter or a public issuer’s filing regime.
USDT held close to its intended $1 price in the month to Aug. 13, according to CoinMarketCap market data. A stable price is expected of a dollar-referenced token, but it is also an outcome shaped by liquidity, redemption mechanisms and market confidence rather than a stand-alone test of reserves.
Broader crypto sentiment remained cautious. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index read 29, or Fear, on Aug. 13. That measure does not assess Tether specifically, but it provides context for why a rare, independently audited disclosure from one of crypto’s largest issuers may draw attention beyond the stablecoin market.
The important next check is Tether’s subsequent reserve reporting. Thursday’s audit adds a historical, independently reviewed baseline; the company’s future disclosures will show how the balance sheet and its reserve cushion develop after the period KPMG examined.
Fear & Greed Index
Aug. 13, 2026Stay up to date
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Primary sources and further reading
| Source | Title |
|---|---|
| | Tether: Tether completes its inaugural financial audit |
| | Tether: Audit-firm engagement announcement |
| | Tether: Q4 2025 attestation and reserve report |
| | Tether: Transparency and reserve information |
| | CoinMarketCap: Tether USDt market data |
| | Alternative.me: Crypto Fear & Greed Index |
Fact-checked by: Daily Crypto Briefs Fact-Check Desk
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Frequently Asked Questions
What did KPMG audit for Tether?
Tether said KPMG U.S. audited Tether International's financial statements for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025. The company said the work examined transactions, systems, ownership records, valuations, counterparties and supporting evidence.
How much did Tether's reserves exceed its liabilities?
Tether said the audited statements showed a $6.814 billion surplus of reserves over liabilities as of Dec. 31, 2025.
Is a full audit the same as a reserve attestation?
No. An attestation typically reports on selected information at a point in time, while an audit produces an opinion on financial statements for a reporting period. Tether said it will continue publishing reserve reporting.
Does the audit prove USDT is backed in real time?
No. The completed audit concerns the year ended Dec. 31, 2025. It is stronger historical disclosure, but it is not a real-time reserve statement or a guarantee about later market conditions.