Tether Signs Deal with Big Four Accounting Firms, USDT Reserves Face Biggest Audit in History

Gate News: Stablecoin giant Tether announces it has signed with one of the Big Four accounting firms for a comprehensive audit of its USDT reserves. This is the largest audit in financial market history. Tether states that this audit covers complex assets including digital assets, traditional reserves, and tokenized liabilities, marking a milestone for the company and modern finance development.

Tether is headquartered in San Salvador, El Salvador. In recent years, it has actively expanded into the U.S. market and launched the USAT stablecoin for American users in January this year. With a total market cap of $184 billion, USDT is a major player in the stablecoin market, holding about half of the market share. Despite this, Tether has faced skepticism over reserve transparency for years, and was previously accused of making false statements about USDT’s funding sources in New York, leading to a suspension of local operations.

Since 2022, Tether has been releasing quarterly audit reports, but with limited scope. CEO Paolo Ardoino said that the Big Four firms were initially concerned about reputational risks, but this audit is not only a compliance check for the hundreds of millions of individuals and businesses relying on USDT but also a matter of trust and infrastructure resilience.

As of December last year, Tether held $122 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds, surpassing the reserve levels of countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. With the U.S. “Genius Act” promoting the acceleration of tokenized finance and stablecoins gradually becoming mainstream, Tether’s audit has attracted significant market attention and could set a new standard for compliance and transparency in the crypto industry.

This announcement marks a key step toward transparency of USDT reserves and brings new momentum for stablecoin market confidence and mainstream adoption.