Tether taps Big Four firm KPMG for first financial audit of $184 billion stablecoin issuer: FT

KPMG has been engaged to conduct the first full financial statement audit of Tether (USDT), bringing Big Four scrutiny to the $184 billion USDT issuer after years of relying on point-in-time attestations.

The El Salvador-based company has also hired a second Big Four accounting firm, PwC, to help prepare its internal systems for the audit, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The development puts a name to Tether's Tuesday announcement that it had "entered a formal engagement with a Big Four accounting firm to complete its first full independent financial statement audit." The company did not identify the firm at the time.

"Trust is built when institutions are willing to open themselves fully to scrutiny," Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said Tuesday. The audit, he said, "represents years of work to strengthen our systems so that Tether can meet the highest standards applied in global finance."

The Block has reached out to Tether for comment.

Tether's USDT is the largest stablecoin by market capitalization. According to The Block’s data dashboard, total stablecoin supply stands at $298.9 billion, with USDT accounting for $184.2 billion. Circle’s USDC, the second-largest, has a market cap of nearly $80 billion.

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The company previously published monthly attestations from BDO Italia confirming that USDT was backed by the assets Tether claimed. Those reports fall short of the full financial statement audit that KPMG will now conduct, the FT report said. 

Tether's pursuit of a full audit comes as the company's advisers have floated raising $5 billion, down from earlier talks of $15 billion to $20 billion tied to a $500 billion valuation, according to the report. 

The revised figure represents a 75% reduction from the high end of the original target and comes after Tether reported roughly $10 billion in profit last year.