Tether gets its first-ever full audit, from KPMG

Tether runs USDT, the world's most-used stablecoin, a digital dollar meant to always equal one real dollar. For years, critics doubted whether Tether actually held enough real money to back every token in circulation. On Wednesday, that question got its most serious answer yet. KPMG, one of the world's largest accounting firms, gave Tether's finances a clean bill of health.

The audit isn't as complete as it sounds. KPMG checked Tether's assets, systems, and ownership records for the year ending Dec. 31, 2025. But Tether hasn't published the actual audit report, only the opinion and a summary. That means outsiders still can't see the full paper trail themselves. Tether says its reserves beat its liabilities by $6.8 billion, enough of a cushion to cover a bad day. Whether that number holds up under public scrutiny, rather than a private review, is a different question.

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Will this audit actually change how regulators treat Tether? The company has spent a decade fighting claims that it doesn't hold enough real dollars behind USDT. A clean KPMG opinion is a real point in its favor, the kind skeptics have demanded for years. But one audit, without the full report public, isn't the same as ongoing, transparent oversight. Watch whether Tether keeps doing this every year. And watch whether it eventually releases the whole document, not just the summary.