Key conclusions
- KPMG issued an unqualified opinion on the financial statements of Tether International for 2025. Reserves exceed liabilities by $6.81 billion, and auditors counted and looked at each gold bar separately.
- This is the first full audit of the company behind USDT, after a decade of promises and a USD 41 million fine imposed by the US CFTC for earlier assurances of coverage.
- The opinion concerns the subsidiary, not the entire structure. It also does not respond to the new US test in which gold is not on the proposed list of acceptable reserve assets.
- Nothing is unlocked for the owner in Poland. USDT disappeared from pairs on regulated exchanges in the European Economic Area on July 1 because Tether did not apply for MiCA authorization.
An unqualified opinion is the strongest thing an independent expert can sign. Paolo Ardoino, the company’s chief executive, called it the largest first audit in financial history. An exaggeration, but not by an order of magnitude.
What KPMG actually checked
The previous quarterly certificates of reserves showed a snapshot: so many assets, so many liabilities, as of a specific day. A full audit of financial statements goes deeper because it examines the balance sheet and contractors, and not just the result at the end of the period. When it comes to gold, the auditors did not stop at reports from companies storing the precious metal. They counted and looked at each bar individually.
So yes, this signature means something.
Is an audit enough for the American regulator?
Tether closed the allegation made a decade ago, and Washington changed the question in the meantime. The GENIUS Act and proposed implementing regulations no longer only ask whether an issuer has reserves. They ask what these reserves are made of and how they will behave under pressure.
The FDIC’s proposed list of allowable assets includes cash, Federal Reserve balances, demand deposits, short-term Treasury bonds and select money market instruments. Gold is not on this list. Neither does Bitcoin. And Tether has been expanding its reserve in bullion for months, i.e. in assets that auditors have counted piece by piece – but unfortunately the draft regulations reject them.
In addition, there is a liquidity test. The proposal defines a major redemption event as demands exceeding 10 percent of issued supply in a 24-hour period. With approximately $183 billion in Q2 token commitments, that’s roughly $18 billion going out in one day. The annual expert opinion does not answer this question because it measures the balance sheet and not the behavior under stress.
There is also a caveat that the company does not disclose. The opinion covers Tether International, which is a subsidiary. An audit of the parent structure has not been announced yet.
Will USDT return to the stock exchanges in Poland?
The audit is not a response to MiCA and does not unlock anything in Europe. These are two different tests set by two different offices, and the company passed one of them.
What does this mean for you
If you hold USDT on a platform outside the European Economic Area, this audit really improves your information situation. You know more about coverage than you did before August 13, and you know it from the document signed by a company that has something to lose.
And one thing I look at with every story like this. The annual opinion talks about one balance sheet date, the monthly reporting and weekly reports to the regulator talk about each day separately. Tether has passed the test that has been demanded of it for ten years. The test, which Washington is only beginning to meet, requires repeating the same proof every month for as long as $183 billion in USDT is circulating in the market.
