The unnamed “Big Four” company that Tether selected to audit its $185 billion USDT stablecoin is KPMG, the Financial Times reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Tether also hired PwC to prepare its internal systems ahead of the audit, marking the most concrete step yet toward a comprehensive financial review of the world’s largest stablecoin issuer. CoinDesk has contacted Tether for comment on this matter.
CoinDesk reported earlier this week that Tether said it had entered into a formal engagement with a Big Four auditor, but the stablecoin issuer did not identify the company. Chief financial officer Simon McWilliams said at the time that Tether was “already operating to Big Four auditing standards” and that “the audit would be carried out.”
All of this comes as the El Salvador-based company prepares for a U.S. expansion and possible fundraising. The Financial Times previously reported that Tether faced investor hesitation in its efforts to raise $15 billion to $20 billion at a $500 billion valuation, with concerns centered on pricing and regulatory risks.
The audit push comes at a pivotal time. USDT, with approximately $185 billion in circulation, functions as the reserve currency of crypto markets and a major buyer of U.S. Treasuries, linking digital assets to traditional large-scale financial systems.
A full financial statement audit would go well beyond the monthly attestations currently published by BDO Italia, requiring a detailed review of assets, liabilities, internal controls and reporting systems.
This level of disclosure has long been a sticking point for critics, as Tether has faced persistent questions about its reserves since its launch in 2014 and has historically struggled with transparency.
In 2021, CoinDesk filed a FOIL request with the New York Attorney General’s Office for documents on the composition of USDT reserves. Tether fought its release in court and lost twice.
The documents, received after a two-year legal battle in 2023, revealed that Tether held the vast majority of its $40.6 billion in reserves with Bahamas-based Deltec Bank as of March 2021, with heavy exposure to commercial paper issued by Chinese and international banks, including Agricultural Bank of China, Hong Kong Bank of China and ICBC.
Tether’s move toward greater transparency aligns with a changing regulatory landscape in the United States, as crypto as a whole becomes a dominant asset class used by Wall Street.
The GENIUS Act, signed into law last July, established the first federal framework for stablecoins in the United States, under which Tether has already launched a compliant dollar-pegged token, USAT.
