Tether Audit: KPMG Unqualified Opinion on 2025 USDT Reserves

| decrypt.co
Tether audit is finally complete. Tether said Big Four firm KPMG issued an unqualified (best possible) opinion on its 2025 financial statements, covering assets, liabilities, income, cash flows, internal systems, records, counterparties, and supporting documentation. Notably, the review included physically inspecting and counting each gold bar, rather than relying only on custodian reports. This arrives after years of reserve-backing scrutiny. In 2021, Tether paid New York $18.5 million over reserve misstatements and the U.S. CFTC fined it $41 million for claiming USDT was fully backed by dollars when it was not always the case. A clean Tether audit raises the evidentiary bar for USDT reserve assurance. Traders should note: this is an annual financial-statement audit, not a daily reserve look-through. A separate March 31, 2026 reserve attestation (BDO, ISAE 3000R) showed about $191.768B in assets vs. $183.536B in liabilities, leaving an ~ $8.232B buffer, including roughly $141B in U.S. Treasury bills, ~$20B physical gold, and ~$7B BTC. Why it matters for trading: improved audit credibility may reduce some year-end USDT counterparty-risk discounts, but market confidence will likely depend on how often future Tether audits and reserve disclosures are updated between reporting dates. It may also support liquidity in major stablecoin trading pairs, especially if regulators like the GENIUS Act framework progress.
Neutral
A KPMG unqualified opinion is a positive credibility signal for USDT reserves, especially because the audit involved direct physical inspection of gold bars and comes after high-profile 2021 reserve misrepresentation and CFTC sanctions. That can reduce lingering counterparty-risk discounts and may improve sentiment toward USDT. However, traders should temper expectations: this is an annual financial-statement audit, not a continuous or daily reserve look-through. The market will still focus on disclosure cadence and whether future reserve attestations and audit timing keep pace. Also, the broader impact depends on regulatory momentum (e.g., GENIUS Act) rather than on this single audit alone. Netting these factors, the likely immediate price impact on USDT itself is limited, with a generally neutral-to-supportive setup rather than a clear one-way catalyst.