Tether Gold gets first Big Four audit after five years of limited disclosures
Tether Gold (XAUT) has completed its first Big Four financial audit, with KPMG U.S. issuing an unqualified opinion on the gold-backed token’s 2025 financial statements more than five years after its launch.
Summary
- Tether Gold has completed its first Big Four audit, with KPMG issuing an unqualified opinion on its 2025 financial statements covering $2.25 billion in gold reserves.
- The audit follows more than five years of limited independent disclosures, with XAUT publishing its first specific reserve attestation in April 2025.
- KPMG physically inspected and counted the gold bars backing XAUT, while Tether’s latest quarterly report placed its reserves at $3.44 billion as of September 2026.
- The audit follows years of scrutiny over Tether’s reserve disclosures, including a $41 million CFTC settlement in 2021 concerning historical USDT backing claims.
According to Tether’s November 12 announcement, the audit covered TG Commodities, S.A. de C.V., the company responsible for issuing XAUT, and included an examination of the physical bullion backing tokens in circulation.
KPMG’s review covered the financial year ended December 31, 2025, when Tether Gold held 520,089.35 fine troy ounces of gold valued at approximately $2.25 billion.
The company said auditors physically inspected and counted individual gold bars, checking their identifying information against supporting records. KPMG’s unqualified opinion means the audited financial statements fairly presented the issuer’s financial position under the applicable accounting standards.
Tether Gold is the company’s second stablecoin to receive a Big Four audit, following the completion of a separate KPMG review of Tether International’s financial statements in August.
Tether Gold audit follows years of limited independent reporting
Launched in January 2020, XAUT allows investors to hold ownership interests in physical gold through blockchain-based tokens, with each token representing one fine troy ounce of bullion stored in Switzerland.
Despite operating for more than five years, Tether Gold did not publish its first product-specific independent reserves attestation until April 2025.
As crypto.news previously reported, the initial report showed that Tether held 246,523.33 ounces of gold, equivalent to more than 7.7 metric tons, to support the tokens issued at the time.
The report provided independent assurance over the company’s stated reserve position at a particular date, but it was not a full audit of the issuer’s annual financial statements.
Tether subsequently continued publishing quarterly reserve reports as demand for tokenized gold grew.
By March 31, 2026, its gold reserves had reached approximately 707,747 ounces, a 36% rise from the end of 2025. The corresponding market value exceeded $3.3 billion.
The latest available September 30 attestation, prepared by BDO, placed reserves at 827,417.63 fine troy ounces, valued at $3.44 billion.
Of the 827,417.63 XAUT minted at that date, approximately 709,323.66 tokens had been sold, while 118,093.97 remained available for sale, according to the report.
Tether’s earlier reserve disputes preceded KPMG audits
Tether’s move toward full financial audits follows years of questions about the reserves supporting its stablecoins, particularly its dollar-pegged USDT token.
In October 2021, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered Tether to pay $41 million after finding that the company had made misleading statements about USDT being fully backed by U.S. dollars.
The regulator found that Tether held sufficient fiat reserves in its accounts to cover circulating USDT for only 27.6% of the days examined during a 26-month period between 2016 and 2018.
The findings concerned USDT and its historical reserve disclosures, not the physical gold backing XAUT.
Tether subsequently expanded its financial reporting practices and began publishing regular reserve attestations through accounting firm BDO.
In March 2026, the company appointed KPMG for its first full financial statement audit, while PwC was reportedly engaged to help prepare its internal systems.
KPMG completed the audit of Tether International in August, issuing an unqualified opinion on its 2025 accounts. The company reported that reserves exceeded liabilities associated with issued tokens by $6.814 billion at year-end.
The earlier audit examined transactions, asset ownership, valuations, counterparties, and supporting financial records across the USDT issuer’s operations.
Tether Chief Financial Officer Simon McWilliams said the company intends to continue extending its financial audit program across its businesses following the completion of the two engagements.
