Tether Taps Big Four Auditor for Its First Full Independent Financial Audit

Tether said Tuesday it has engaged a Big Four accounting firm to conduct its first comprehensive, independent financial audit, a milestone the stablecoin issuer frames as a push to raise transparency standards across digital finance. The company said the review could rank among the largest first-time audits ever undertaken in finance, citing the scale and complexity of its reserves, which span crypto assets, traditional financial instruments and tokenized liabilities. Tether did not disclose which of the Big Four firms it selected. "Tether's mission has always been to build trust through action, not promises," CEO Paolo Ardoino said, adding that confidence grows when institutions submit to full scrutiny. Ardoino said the audit follows years of system upgrades intended to meet global financial standards and to bolster accountability for the hundreds of millions of people and businesses that use USDT daily. Regulatory pressure has intensified as USDT continues to dominate the stablecoin market, with a market capitalization above $184 billion and more than 550 million users worldwide. While the business is profitable, Tether remains under close watch over issues including disclosure practices, legal compliance, reserve composition and centralization risk. In the U.S., the GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025, introduced new requirements for large stablecoin issuers, including mandatory monthly reserve attestations and annual independent audits. Tether had previously relied on periodic attestation reports rather than full audits, turning a long-stated objective into a statutory requirement. Tether was founded in 2014 and expanded rapidly by offering traders a dollar-pegged token usable across exchanges and blockchain networks. In 2021, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined Tether $41 million for misrepresenting its reserves, after the company at times said it was fully backed by cash even though a meaningful share of reserves consisted of commercial paper and other less liquid instruments. The company hired Simon McWilliams as chief financial officer in early 2025 as part of preparations for a full audit. "The Big Four Firm was selected through a competitive process because the organisation is already operating at Big Four audit standard; the audit will be delivered," he said. Tether reported net profit of more than $10 billion in 2025, down from about $13 billion in 2024. It has also highlighted cooperation with law enforcement globally, saying roughly $4.2 billion in USDT tied to illicit activity has been frozen. In January 2026, Deloitte confirmed that Tether's USAT stablecoin maintained more than 100% backing, which the company cited as evidence it is ready for broader audit scrutiny.