KPMG issues first Big Four audit of Tether Gold

The audit examined TG Commodities, S.A. de C.V., which issues XAUT, for the financial year ended December 31, 2025. Tether said KPMG physically inspected and counted the gold bars backing tokens in circulation and checked their identifying information against supporting records. An unqualified opinion means the statements fairly presented the issuer’s financial position under applicable accounting standards.

Launched in January 2020, XAUT represents ownership interests in physical gold stored in Switzerland, with each token corresponding to one fine troy ounce. The company did not publish its first product-specific independent reserve attestation until April 2025. That report recorded 246,523.33 ounces backing the tokens then issued; unlike the new review, it was not an audit of annual financial statements.

Tether continued issuing quarterly reserve reports as demand for tokenized gold grew. Reserves stood at approximately 707,747 ounces on March 31, 2026, with a market value above $3.3 billion. The latest available attestation, prepared by BDO and dated September 30, 2026, put reserves at 827,417.63 fine troy ounces, worth $3.44 billion. Of the 827,417.63 XAUT minted, about 709,323.66 had been sold and 118,093.97 remained available for sale.

The audit comes amid a broader expansion of Tether’s financial reporting after scrutiny of its stablecoin reserves. In October 2021, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered the company to pay $41 million over misleading statements about USDT’s backing. The regulator found sufficient fiat reserves to cover circulating USDT on only 27.6% of the days examined between 2016 and 2018. Those findings concerned USDT, not the gold backing XAUT.

KPMG’s XAUT review is Tether’s second Big Four audit, following its audit of Tether International’s 2025 accounts, completed in August. The company said reserves exceeded liabilities associated with issued tokens by $6.814 billion at year-end. CFO Simon McWilliams said Tether intends to extend its audit program across its businesses.