USDT Issuer Tether Reports $6.8 Billion Excess Reserves in First Audit

Crypto News

Tether, the issuer of USDT, completed its first full independent financial-statement audit, with KPMG US issuing an unqualified opinion on the company’s 2025 accounts. The review covered assets, liabilities, earnings and cash movements for the fiscal year that ended Dec. 31, 2025, including the reserve assets backing issued tokens and the obligations those tokens create. The company’s official announcement said the audited statements showed reserves exceeding liabilities by $6.814 billion, a disclosure that moves the conversation beyond periodic snapshots. Unlike quarterly reserve attestations, which assess holdings on a single date, a complete audit examines underlying transactions, systems, ownership records, valuations and counterparties across a reporting period. That distinction matters because USDT is not one of the algorithmic stablecoins that depend on code-managed supply; it relies on custodied and liquid assets that must be verified over time. The process gives exchanges and compliance teams a fuller record than earlier point-in-time assurances. The audit also follows a year of expansion for the issuer, which reported more than $10 billion in net profit for 2025 and $1.5 billion in second-quarter net operating profit, largely from US Treasury holdings and repurchase agreements. As the largest stablecoin and a major altcoin by market value, USDT now has a new evidence base for institutional users.

The audit matters less for the accounting label than for the barrier it clears: Tether spent years facing doubts over whether a Big Four firm would undertake a complete review of its reserve structure. The San Salvador-based issuer described the engagement as the largest first-time financial audit ever conducted in the sector and framed it as a response to longstanding claims that the company avoided rigorous scrutiny. Chief Executive Paolo Ardoino said critics had argued such a review could not be completed, and he described the outcome as proof that those assumptions were wrong. The company’s announcement emphasized that KPMG conducted a physical inspection of each gold bar in Tether’s custody, counting the inventory and confirming identifying details instead of depending only on custodian reports. It added that all assets and statements underwent independent substantive testing and verification. The statement did not specifically address the company’s Bitcoin holdings, although on-chain data referenced in the broader market discussion indicates Tether controls nearly $60 billion in Bitcoin as part of its reserves. For users who hold USDT through an exchange or an AI crypto wallet, the practical impact is that the issuer’s reserve claims now rest on a full-period examination rather than a date-specific attestation.

The audit’s political and reputational weight forms another layer of the story. Ardoino called the completion a defining moment for the stablecoin industry and said on X that, by at least an order of magnitude, it was the largest first-time audit in financial history. He credited the company’s finance function with completing the process to the highest standards across digital assets and global finance, adding that “no rock was left unturned.” The most consequential accounting detail is the unqualified opinion, the strongest conclusion available from an independent accountant when statements fairly present results under US accounting standards. Tether also sought to draw a line under years of skepticism, saying the process answered what it called false claims, competitor lies and political attacks. Historically, the issuer provided attestations tied to specific dates rather than full-period audits, a narrower form of assurance that critics viewed as insufficient. The shift therefore addresses one of the longest-running objections to USDT’s reserve regime. With USDT carrying a market capitalization of roughly $183 billion and accounting for about 61% of the $301 billion stablecoin market, the outcome carries implications beyond Tether itself. It also extends to tokenized commodities such as Tether Gold, whose physical reserves rose 9.5% in the second quarter and whose value stood near $2.7 billion.

COINOTAG’s reading is that these disclosures mark a transition from assertion-based confidence to document-based confidence in the largest dollar-like token in crypto. The load-bearing record is the company’s audited financial statement, which states that reserves exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion and that KPMG US issued an unqualified opinion after examining balance-sheet items, transactions and physical gold. That primary source matters more than promotional language or legacy attestations. For stablecoin users, exchanges and market analysts, the audit raises the evidentiary bar for reserve verification. It also reframes competition among dollar tokens around auditable controls rather than incentives such as an airdrop. The next test is whether the market prices this transparency in liquidity, listings and compliance discussions.