Financial Times reported Friday that Tether has hired KPMG to carry out its first full audit of USDT’s financial statements, while also bringing in PwC to help prepare its internal systems, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The reported move follows Tether’s announcement earlier this week that it had formally engaged a Big Four firm for its inaugural financial statement audit, though it did not name the provider at the time. This step comes after years of commitments to a full audit, during which the company instead relied on periodic reserve attestations from BDO Italia, which has been issuing assurance reports since 2022.
The development comes as Tether considers a major equity raise and expands its presence in the United States under a new federal stablecoin framework introduced by the GENIUS Act.
USDT, a dollar-pegged token with roughly $185 billion in circulation, remains the largest stablecoin by market capitalization, according to CoinGecko. Tether said in January that it holds more than $122 billion in direct U.S. Treasury securities and about $141 billion in total Treasury exposure, including instruments such as overnight reverse repurchase agreements.
A full audit by KPMG is expected to go beyond reserve snapshots, examining Tether’s assets, liabilities, and internal controls across its balance sheet—an undertaking the company has described as “the biggest ever inaugural audit in the history of financial markets.”
Tether said the Big Four firm was selected through a competitive process and noted that it already operates at Big Four–level audit standards, though it has not publicly specified a timeline for completing the audit.
KPMG audit and Tether’s funding ambitions
Bloomberg reported in September 2025 that Tether was exploring a potential equity raise of up to $20 billion, suggesting a valuation of $500 billion. Tether CEO Paulo Ardoino pushed back on those claims in February, telling Cointelegraph that no such figure had been finalized, while still pointing to a $500 billion valuation target based on the company’s profitability.
The company has previously paid a $41 million fine to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over what regulators described as “untrue or misleading statements” regarding its reserves.
In a separate matter, Tether agreed to an $18.5 million settlement with the New York Attorney General over allegations that it concealed losses and misled investors about USDT’s backing. As part of the agreement, the company was required to provide detailed quarterly reserve reports for two years and later withdrew its opposition to making those disclosures public.
