Tether announced that the audit covered not only reserve information but also the company’s broader financial reporting and supporting documentation—including assets, liabilities, transactions, accounting systems, valuation methods, and cash flows. According to the audit report, Tether’s reserves as of January 1 exceeded its liabilities by $68.14 billion.
The gold reserves of Tether were also audited. According to company representatives, KPMG specialists did not limit themselves to reports from storage service providers and other counterparties—they physically counted and inspected each gold bar owned by Tether.
KPMG itself has officially confirmed the completion of the audit and the issuance of an unqualified opinion. However, KPMG stated that, due to client confidentiality policies, they cannot publish or comment on the report themselves.
On July 31, Tether reported that its net operating profit for the second quarter of the year was $1.5 billion, and the circulating supply of USDT reached approximately $184.6 billion. Additionally, Tether’s assets included more than 146 metric tons of gold.
In April 2024, company CEO Paolo Ardoino stated that the Big Four auditing firms (Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG) are afraid to work with Tether, as they fear damaging their reputation by "engaging with participants in the high-risk cryptocurrency industry." Until 2026, Tether published only quarterly reports on USDT reserve backing but did not conduct an independent financial audit.
The last official independent audit report dates back to September 2017, when it was conducted by Friedman LLP, confirming that Tether had assets of $442 million; however, the report did not disclose the banks where accounts were held, making the information opaque. Since November 2017, there has been a dramatic surge in the issuance of Tether stablecoins—the number of USDT issued in a single month rose from $450 million to $2.2 billion.
The transparency and business structure of Tether have repeatedly raised concerns among investors. In 2024, Cyber Capital founder Justin Bons even compared the operations of one of the largest stablecoin issuers to a financial scam akin to the infamously notorious cryptocurrency exchange FTX.