Tether Audit Raises More Questions Than Answers
Tether, the issuer of the popular stablecoin USDT, has finally received an audit from KPMG's US arm. The audit is a significant step forward for Tether, but it doesn't necessarily mean that all questions about the company's finances are answered.
The audit was conducted under American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) standards and took over half a year to complete. While this may seem like a long time, auditors typically make their rounds at the end of a fiscal year to provide an audit early in the next year.
However, Tether's CEO Paolo Ardoino has been bragging about how every gold bar owned by the company has been seen and verified by auditors. This is nothing new, as auditors would have needed to verify this information anyway to give Tether an unqualified opinion.
The audit doesn't provide clarity on Tether's past indiscretions, such as its lack of backing in previous years. CEO Ardoino and former General Counsel Stuart Hoegner promised audits for 2018 and every year going forward, but auditors would have needed to be engaged for those years and have clear records provided to them.