Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, has announced it has signed an agreement with a Big Four accounting firm to conduct its first full independent financial statement audit. The company made the announcement on Tuesday but stopped short of naming which firm will carry out the work. A Tether representative did not respond to requests for comment on the identity of the auditor.
Tether claims to hold approximately $192 billion in assets worldwide to back the value of its dollar-pegged stablecoin, USDT. The bulk of those holdings are said to consist of U.S. Treasuries. Despite these claims, the company has not undergone a formal audit by a major accounting firm since its founding in 2014, relying instead on attestations reviewed by an Italian accounting firm that has never directly examined Tether’s accounts or holdings.
The Big Four firms — Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, and KPMG — are the largest auditing organizations in the world. They are broadly considered to apply a high standard of rigor and transparency when engaged by major corporations, making their involvement significant for a company of Tether’s scale.
Tether’s chief executive, Paolo Ardoino, indicated last year that a Big Four audit was a goal for the company, noting that the process was complicated by Tether’s size. The latest announcement suggests that planning has now advanced to a formal agreement, though a timeline for completion has not been disclosed.
The move comes in the context of new U.S. legislation. The GENIUS Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump last summer, requires foreign stablecoin issuers to undergo rigorous reserve audits. Tether, which is headquartered in El Salvador, falls under that requirement in principle. Ardoino previously stated his intention for USDT to comply with the law, and completing a Big Four audit would represent a significant step toward meeting that obligation.
Separately, Tether launched a U.S.-focused subsidiary last fall with its own domestic stablecoin, USAT. The token began trading in January and currently holds a market capitalization of approximately $27 million — a fraction of USDT’s $184 billion. USAT’s reserves were audited by Deloitte the following month, marking the company’s first successful engagement with a Big Four firm, albeit for a much smaller product.
The announcement of a full audit for USDT marks a notable shift for a company that has long faced scrutiny over the transparency of its reserve disclosures. Whether the forthcoming audit will fully satisfy regulators and market participants will depend in part on which firm conducts it and the scope of the review ultimately published.
Originally reported by Decrypt.
