Tether said KPMG U.S. has issued an unqualified opinion on the 2025 financial statements of Tether International, S.A. de C.V., the company it identifies as the sole issuer of the USDT stablecoin, marking the first full annual audit disclosed by the stablecoin operator.
According to Tether, the audited accounts showed that the entity’s reserves exceeded its liabilities by $6.8 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025. An unqualified opinion, commonly called a clean opinion, means the auditor concluded that the financial statements fairly presented the company’s financial position under the applicable accounting framework.
The disclosure moves Tether beyond the quarterly reserve attestations it has published in recent years. Those reports provide a snapshot of reserve assets and token liabilities at a specified date, while a financial audit examines annual statements and the controls, evidence, and accounting judgments supporting them.
Paolo Ardoino, chief executive officer of Tether, said the company intends to complete a full financial audit every year while maintaining its quarterly attestation schedule.
Audit covers the company identified as USDT issuer
The scope of the engagement has drawn attention because it covered Tether International, S.A. de C.V. rather than a publicly available consolidated set of accounts for the wider Tether corporate structure.
Ardoino said that distinction does not limit the review of USDT backing because Tether International is the only entity that issues the stablecoin. That places the core liability — the outstanding USDT tokens redeemable by holders — within the audited entity’s accounts.
The question remains relevant to readers assessing Tether as a business beyond the token issuer. A consolidated group audit would generally offer a fuller view of affiliated operations, intercompany relationships, investments, and liabilities outside the issuer itself. Tether’s announcement instead centers on the entity responsible for issuing USDT and holding the reserves intended to support redemptions.
Tether has not released the audited financial statements or KPMG’s full audit report publicly. Ardoino said the company does not publish audited accounts, while a source with direct knowledge of the matter said the documents can be provided to regulators and banks upon request because Tether is privately held.
That approach gives supervisory authorities and banking counterparties a potential route to examine the records while leaving traders and researchers reliant on Tether’s summary of the audit outcome and its regular attestations. Public companies typically release audited statements because securities rules require it; private companies usually have greater discretion over disclosure.
The source said KPMG’s opinion included no reservations, exceptions, caveats, or emphasis-of-matter language. Such language can be used by auditors to draw attention to material uncertainty or a significant issue affecting how users interpret the accounts, even where the opinion itself remains unqualified.
A long-awaited step for the stablecoin issuer
Tether has faced years of scrutiny over its reserves, particularly during periods when USDT’s supply expanded rapidly and stablecoin failures put redemption mechanisms under pressure. The company’s transition from attestations to an annual audit responds to one of the most persistent demands from market participants, regulators, and critics.
Ardoino attributed the delay partly to accounting firms’ reluctance to serve cryptocurrency businesses during a period of hostile policy signals in the United States. He pointed to criticism of the sector by Senator Elizabeth Warren as a factor that, in his view, increased uncertainty for audit firms considering engagements with digital-asset companies.
The audit announcement does not itself resolve debates over stablecoin regulation, reserve composition, or disclosure standards. It does establish a new reporting commitment for the largest dollar-linked token issuer, with Tether saying annual audits will now sit alongside quarterly reports on reserves.
USDT’s scale makes the accounting change consequential for markets that use the token as a settlement asset, collateral source, and route into dollar-denominated liquidity. Tether cited a company estimate of 650 million users relying on USDT, particularly in emerging markets, though it did not detail the methodology behind that figure.
Redemption history remains central to Tether’s case
Ardoino also pointed to Tether’s experience during the market stress of 2022, when he said the company processed $7 billion of redemptions over 48 hours while continuing to meet withdrawal requests. He said that amount represented roughly 10% of reserves at the time.
The episode has become a central part of Tether’s defense of its liquidity management. Stablecoins are tested most sharply when users seek to exit at the same time, forcing issuers to convert reserve assets into cash quickly enough to maintain redemptions at par.
A reserve surplus of $6.8 billion, as reported by Tether for year-end 2025, would provide a cushion against losses on assets and operational costs. The practical value of that buffer depends on the quality, maturity, and liquidity of the assets held against USDT liabilities — areas that Tether’s quarterly attestation reports address more frequently than an annual financial statement would.
No confirmed plan for an outside share sale
Ardoino said Tether had not formally announced a private fundraising process and declined to say whether talks concerning a potential share sale had ended. He added that the company does not need outside capital.
The comments follow market interest in whether Tether could seek a valuation through a minority stake sale. A company able to fund operations from retained earnings and existing capital has less need to accept external financing, though a sale could still serve strategic purposes such as bringing in banking, technology, or distribution partners.
Tether’s stated preference for privacy also shapes how such discussions are likely to be viewed. The company is disclosing more about the finances of its USDT issuing entity, while maintaining that it will not release its full audited accounts to the public.
AI security work could target bitcoin software bugs
Beyond reserves and auditing, Ardoino said Tether is considering support for projects that use advanced artificial intelligence models to identify vulnerabilities in bitcoin-related open-source software. He referred to a recent ColdCard incident, involving a hardware wallet product, as an example of why software flaws present a nearer-term security concern.
Ardoino said coding bugs pose a more immediate threat to bitcoin users than quantum computing. He added that bitcoin could address potential quantum risks through a quantum-resistant signature scheme, a type of cryptography designed to withstand attacks from sufficiently powerful quantum computers.
For Tether, the combination of an annual audit commitment and prospective security funding extends its role beyond issuing a dollar-linked token. The immediate test will be whether future audited reporting gives regulators, banks, and USDT users a clearer and more consistent view of the reserves supporting one of cryptocurrency’s most widely used settlement assets.
Concerned about stablecoin risks after Tether’s audit? Explore stablecoin fundamentals and adoption insights to better understand reserves, regulation, and market impact.
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