KPMG Selected to Perform Tether's Inaugural Complete USDT Audit, According to FT
The stablecoin issuer Tether has engaged KPMG to perform its maiden comprehensive independent examination of USDT reserves while also enlisting PwC for assistance, coinciding with plans for a substantial equity funding round worth billions of dollars.
According to a Friday report from the Financial Times, Tether has engaged KPMG to undertake its maiden comprehensive examination of USDT's financial records and has also brought PwC on board to assist with preparing its internal infrastructure, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.
This reported engagement comes on the heels of Tether's announcement on Tuesday that it had officially retained one of the Big Four accounting firms to perform an initial financial statement examination, though the company declined to identify which firm at that time, and arrives following numerous years of promises to provide a complete examination of its financial records while instead depending on periodic reserve attestations from BDO Italia, the Italian affiliate of the BDO worldwide accounting organization that has been generating USDt (USDT) assurance documentation since 2022.
This development arrives as Tether (USDT) considers a significant equity capital raise and an expansion into the United States under the recently established federal stablecoin regulatory structure established by the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act.
USDT, a token pegged to the US dollar with approximately $185 billion in circulation, represents the most substantial stablecoin measured by market capitalization, based on data from CoinGecko. Tether disclosed in January that it maintained over $122 billion in direct United States Treasury securities and approximately $141 billion in aggregate Treasury holdings, encompassing associated financial instruments such as overnight reverse repurchase agreements.
A full-scale examination by KPMG is anticipated to extend beyond mere snapshots of reserve holdings, encompassing Tether's assets, liabilities and internal oversight mechanisms throughout its extensive balance sheet, a procedure the organization has characterized as "the biggest ever inaugural audit in the history of financial markets."
Tether indicated that the Big Four accounting firm was selected following a competitive selection procedure and that it currently functions according to Big Four "audit standards," though the company has not yet made a public commitment regarding the timeline for when the examination will be finalized.
Cointelegraph contacted Tether and KPMG for comment but had not received any response at the time of publication. PwC declined to provide any comment regarding the matter.
KPMG audit and Tether's funding ambitions
A September 2025 report from Bloomberg indicated that Tether was considering raising up to $20 billion in new equity capital, which would suggest a company valuation of $500 billion. Tether CEO Paulo Ardoino disputed these assertions, informing Cointelegraph in February that no such amount had been finalized, while continuing to support its $500 billion valuation objective based on the organization's profitability.
The organization has in the past paid a $41 million penalty to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) concerning what the regulatory body described as "untrue or misleading statements" regarding its reserve holdings.
In an additional legal matter, Tether reached an $18.5 million settlement agreement with the New York Attorney General concerning accusations that it hid financial losses and provided misleading information to investors about USDT's underlying backing. As part of the NYAG settlement, Tether was required to furnish comprehensive quarterly reserve documentation for a two-year period and subsequently withdrew its objection to the public disclosure of those documents.