Tether Taps Big Four Accounting Firm for Inaugural Audit

Stablecoin issuer Tether says it has engaged a “Big Four” accounting firm for its inaugural audit.

The company’s “first full independent financial statement audit” is “slated to be the biggest ever inaugural audit in the history of financial markets,” Tether said in a Tuesday (March 25) news release.

Tether’s USDT coin has a market capitalization of a little more than $184 billion, making it the largest stablecoin. The “Big Four” are the largest accounting and auditing firms in the world: Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC.

Tether did not specify which of the Big Four firms will do the audit.

“A full audit by a Big Four firm is among the most rigorous and globally recognized forms of financial assessment,” the release said. “For Tether, the engagement of a Big Four underscores its commitment to providing deep assurance that USDT is fully backed, highly liquid, and operated with world-class risk management.”

While attestations are currently standard practice among stablecoin issuers, Tether says it is moving beyond this benchmark to submit to a full audit.

As covered here recently, an attestation “validates management’s assertion against stated criteria at a point in time” but “does not test enterprise-wide internal controls or assess ongoing liquidity management.”

Tether released an attestation for USDT last month, issued by a regulated bank and reviewed by Deloitte.

“While an attestation of USAT’s reserves is a far cry from a comprehensive audit, the broader lesson from the Deloitte report may be that the U.S. crypto sector is entering a compliance-intensive phase,” PYMNTS wrote earlier this month.

“The combination of AICPA criteria, regulated issuers and Big Four review establishes a new baseline under the GENIUS Act for what institutional-grade stablecoin reporting can look like.

“And it’s happening just as the financial controls and disclosure discipline surrounding digital assets are increasingly coming under the CFO microscope.”

Tether said in the news release that, given its scale and role in the digital asset space, its “engagement onboarding process” attracted the attention of several auditing firms.

“This audit represents years of work to strengthen our systems so that Tether can meet the highest standards applied in global finance,” said Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s chief executive.

“For the hundreds of millions of people and businesses who rely on USDT every day, this audit is not just a compliance exercise; it is about accountability, resilience, and confidence in the infrastructure they depend on.”