(Kitco News) – Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer in the world – and one of the largest buyers and holders of physical gold – announced that it has engaged one of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms to conduct the first full independent audit since its founding.
In an announcement published to the company’s website on Tuesday, Tether said the long-awaited move would constitute the largest ever inaugural audit in the history of financial markets.
“At a scale rarely seen outside the world’s largest sovereign institutions and encompassing a uniquely complex mix of digital assets, traditional reserves, and tokenised liabilities, this audit marks a defining moment not only for Tether, but for the evolution of modern finance itself,” they wrote. “A full audit by a Big Four firm is among the most rigorous and globally recognized forms of financial assessment. For Tether, the engagement of a Big Four underscores its commitment to providing deep assurance that USD₮ is fully backed, highly liquid, and operated with world-class risk management.”
Tether’s U.S. dollar stablecoin, USD₮, currently has a market capitalization of over $184 billion and a global user base of more than 550 million people, and it is one of the cornerstones of the digital asset ecosystem. Meanwhile, Tether’s gold stablecoin, XAU₮, has a total market capitalization of nearly $2.5 billion and is the 32nd largest cryptocurrency in the world.
“Currently, attestations are standard practice among all stablecoin issuers, but Tether is moving beyond this benchmark toward a full audit,” they said. “Given Tether’s scale and its central role in the digital asset ecosystem, the process attracted interest and participation from several audit firms. This level of engagement reflects the significance of the work and underscores why this review is widely viewed as one of the most important and closely examined initiatives the industry has undertaken to date.”
As part of the process, Tether said they will be moving listed securities over the coming days. “Importantly, the ongoing independent audit will provide full visibility into the strength and positioning of Tether’s reserves,” they added.
“Tether’s mission has always been to build trust through action, not promises,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether. “Trust is built when institutions are willing to open themselves fully to scrutiny. This audit represents years of work to strengthen our systems so that Tether can meet the highest standards applied in global finance. For the hundreds of millions of people and businesses who rely on USD₮ every day, this audit is not just a compliance exercise; it is about accountability, resilience, and confidence in the infrastructure they depend on.”
Simon McWilliams, Chief Financial Officer of Tether, said the Big Four Firm was selected after a competitive process, and the company said they intend to undergo a comprehensive, fully independent audit.
Tether’s gold-backed stablecoin has also been attracting significant attention since the company announced its official gold holdings in January. The world’s leading stablecoin issuer holds between 125 and 150 tonnes of gold according to analysts’ estimates.
“Tether remains the largest non-sovereign buyer of physical gold and now ranks within the top 30 global gold holders, surpassing countries like Australia, UAE, Qatar, South Korea, and Greece,” said Fahad Tariq, Senior Vice President, Equity Research at Jefferies, in early February.
Not only is Tether Gold the world’s largest gold token, but the company also holds large amounts of gold as a reserve asset to back its U.S. dollar stablecoin. Roughly 7% of its total holdings are in gold.
But Tether is not just competing against sovereign national banks. Commodity analysts at Société Générale said that XAU₮’s holdings would rank as the eighth-largest ETF globally in terms of tonnage held, despite not being an ETF at all, but rather a digital-asset issuer.
The French bank said that, according to its analysis, flows into XAU₮ in December were the second highest among all global ETFs, behind only SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD), the world’s biggest gold-backed ETF.
SocGen also noted that Tether flows are competing with speculative interest among hedge funds.
“In the last week of January, Tether’s flows became dominant and were a clear driver of market behavior into month-end, especially compared to ETFs,” the analysts said. “But aggregate hedge funds still dominated the influence on prices into month end and early February. After the sharp price decline on Friday the 30th, Tether added a further 11 metric tonnes — effectively ‘buying the dip’, and the flows by Tether outsized those of ETFs but certainly not hedge funds.”
In late January, Tether announced they had added 27 tonnes of gold in the fourth quarter of 2025, after purchasing an estimated 26 tonnes in Q3.
As gold prices have appreciated, the crypto company has become a significant source of gold demand due to the high speed of purchases it has reported for reserves backing the Tether USDT stablecoin, with $187 billion worth of tokens in circulation, and the Tether XAU₮ gold token.
“We are operating at a scale that now places the Tether Gold Investment Fund alongside sovereign gold holders, and that carries real responsibility,” said Paolo Ardoino, Tether CEO, in Tether’s statement.
Ardoino also said that the company is planning to increase its gold exposure to between 10% and 15% of its total portfolio.
