On 13 August, Tether said KPMG U.S. had audited the 2025 financial statements of its issuing entity and returned an unqualified opinion — an accountant's clean bill of health. The auditors examined the full balance sheet, income statement and cash flows, and, according to the company, physically counted every gold bar held in reserve.
For a firm that spent years batting away doubts over whether its USDt token is truly backed one-to-one, it is a symbolic win. The audited accounts, Tether said, show reserves exceeding liabilities by 6.814 billion dollars at the end of 2025. Chief executive Paolo Ardoino did not hold back.
«This is a defining moment for the stablecoin industry,» Ardoino said. «We have once again proven them wrong.»
A Clean Bill, With a Catch
Yet for all the fanfare, one thing was missing from the announcement: the statements themselves. Tether trumpeted «the largest inaugural financial audit in history» but did not release the underlying balance sheet or income statement for outsiders to inspect.
