Tether Audit Surplus Shrinks From $6.8B to $4.1B in Months

Tether says KPMG U.S. has completed its first full financial statement audit of the company behind USDT, issuing an unqualified opinion on its 2025 accounts. The audit found reserves exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion at year-end, but that figure is a snapshot of Tether’s finances as of Dec. 31, 2025—not its reserves today.

Tether announced Thursday that KPMG U.S. had completed the audit of Tether International, S.A. de C.V., covering the year ended Dec. 31, 2025.

The audit covered Tether International's financial statements for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025, including its balance sheet, income statement, changes in equity and cash flows. 

Tether says KPMG examined  balance sheet, income statement, equity changes, and cash flows and other evidence supporting the financial statements. The company also said auditors physically counted and inspected its gold holdings.

Tether CFO Simon McWilliams said the audited statements reported that reserves exceeded liabilities by $6.8 billion at the end of 2025. 

Tether has announced the audit and described KPMG’s findings, but the full audited financial statements, notes and detailed reserve breakdown have not been made public.

That is not unusual for a private company. Unlike public companies, private firms in the U.S. generally are not required to publish their audits or financial statements.

The $6.814 billion figure represents the difference between Tether's reported reserve assets and its liabilities at a specific point in time: December 31, 2025.

In the meantime, Tether's subsequent quarterly reporting provides a more recent snapshot. 

Its second-quarter 2026 attestation, covering June 30, 2026, reported $4.11 billion in excess reserves. That is roughly 40% below the $6.814 billion surplus reported at the end of 2025. 

The audit lands as Tether pushes further into the U.S. market, including its GENIUS Act-aligned stablecoin USAT, launched with Anchorage Digital, and while it reportedly seeks to raise $15–20 billion at a $500 billion valuation.

Tether has faced years of scrutiny over its reserves and disclosures. The company was fined $41 million by the the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 2021 for misrepresenting its reserves, and a separate $18.5 million settlement with the New York Attorney General in the same year kept doubts about USDT's backing alive for years.

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