What Did KPMG’s Audit Change For Tether?
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino dismissed continued criticism of the stablecoin issuer after KPMG U.S. issued an unqualified opinion on the 2025 financial statements of Tether International, the entity Ardoino said is the sole issuer of USDT.
“Honestly, I don’t care,” Ardoino said when asked about criticism that continued after the audit. “We proved ourselves many times.”
An unqualified opinion, commonly described as a clean audit opinion, means the auditor concluded that the financial statements were presented fairly under the applicable accounting framework. Tether said the audited statements showed reserves exceeded liabilities by $6.8 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025.
The audit gives Tether a stronger response to years of questions about the assets backing USDT, but it has not ended the debate. Some critics have questioned whether the audit covered the entire group rather than only Tether International. Ardoino said Tether International is the only entity issuing USDT.
Others have focused on the fact that neither the audited financial statements nor KPMG’s full report has been released publicly. A source with direct knowledge said Tether provides the documents to regulators and banks when requested but does not publish them because the company is privately held.
Why Does Public Disclosure Still Matter?
The distinction between completing an audit and publishing the underlying audited statements matters for investors and counterparties. A clean opinion provides independent assurance over the financial statements examined by KPMG, but market participants cannot independently review the balance sheet, accounting notes and other disclosures if those documents remain private.
The source described the KPMG result as the highest available audit outcome, without reservations, exceptions, caveats or an emphasis of matter.
Tether has long published quarterly reserve attestations, but a full financial audit subjects a broader set of financial statements and controls to auditor examination. Ardoino said the company intends to complete a full audit annually while continuing its quarterly attestations.
The company has also pointed to its redemption history as evidence that its reserves can withstand heavy withdrawals. Ardoino said Tether redeemed $7 billion in about 48 hours during 2022, equal to roughly 10% of its reserves at the time, without suspending redemptions.
Investor Takeaway
KPMG’s clean opinion reduces one of the longest-running concerns around Tether, but the decision not to publish the audited statements leaves a transparency gap for investors who want to examine the financials themselves. Annual audits could narrow that gap over time if they establish a consistent independent review process.
Why Did Tether Take Years To Complete An Audit?
Ardoino rejected the idea that Tether’s balance sheet was too complicated to audit. “The balance sheet is not complex,” he said, describing liabilities as issued tokens and the other side of the balance sheet as the reserves backing them.
Instead, he attributed the delay to the previous U.S. administration’s approach toward digital assets, arguing that major accounting firms had been reluctant to work with cryptocurrency companies because of political and regulatory risk.
He said the current administration’s more favorable treatment of digital assets allowed Tether to restart discussions with several Big Four accounting firms before selecting KPMG U.S.
That explanation does not remove the importance of future audits. For a stablecoin issuer whose core product depends on confidence that each token is adequately backed, repeated independent audits may carry more weight than a single clean opinion. The next annual report will therefore test whether the KPMG audit becomes part of a continuing disclosure process rather than a one-time event.
Does Tether Need Outside Capital?
Ardoino also addressed reports about a possible private fundraising process, saying Tether never formally announced a capital raise and declining to say whether discussions with potential investors had ended.
He said interest in Tether shares remains “huge,” but argued that the profitable company does not need external capital and would only consider investors aligned with its long-term plans. Remaining private, he said, gives Tether more freedom to fund projects without short-term earnings pressure.
Those projects increasingly extend beyond stablecoins. Ardoino said Tether is interested in supporting advanced artificial intelligence models that could identify vulnerabilities in Bitcoin-related open-source software following the recent ColdCard incident. He argued that software flaws present a more immediate risk to Bitcoin than quantum computing.
For investors, however, USDT remains the central issue. Tether claims about 650 million people use the stablecoin, particularly in emerging markets. The KPMG audit strengthens the company’s defense against questions about reserve backing, but future scrutiny is likely to focus on whether annual audits continue, what they cover and how much financial information Tether ultimately makes available outside regulators and banking counterparties.