Tether Passes First Major Audit with Flying Colors

Tether has finally completed its first full independent financial statement audit, and it's a major milestone for the company. KPMG U.S. was the accounting firm that performed the audit, which confirmed that Tether International's reserves backing USDT exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion at year-end.

The audit is significant because it's a full examination of Tether's financial statements, transactions, systems, valuations, counterparties, and ownership records. This is different from attestations, which are limited to a snapshot in time and carry no binding opinion from the accounting firm performing them.

According to Arkham Intelligence data, Tether's balance sheet includes more than $141 billion in direct and indirect US Treasury exposure, alongside gold and roughly $60 billion in Bitcoin. The audit covered a period when Tether's market capitalization had passed $180 billion.

The CEO of Tether, Paolo Ardoino, called it the 'largest inaugural financial audit in history'. Critics, however, were quicker to note that gold verification addresses only one reserve category and that KPMG's own network has previously audited firms that later collapsed under fraud allegations.