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Tether Gold (XAU₮) has received its first full independent audit from accounting firm KPMG, which confirmed that the digital gold token was fully backed by physical gold as of December 31, 2025.
The audit examined TG Commodities, the company issuing XAU₮, and the gold reserves stored in Switzerland.
According to the audit findings released by Tether on Thursday, November 12, TG Commodities held 520,089.350 troy ounces of physical gold worth approximately $2.246 billion. This was against 520,089.300 XAU₮ tokens in circulation at the end of 2025. The figures show that the amount of gold held almost exactly matched the number of tokens issued by the company.
KPMG Physically Checks Every Gold Bar
One of the major details from the audit was how KPMG verified the gold reserves. Rather than depending only on documents or statements from the companies storing the gold, the accounting firm physically counted and inspected every gold bar backing XAU₮.
KPMG also issued an unqualified opinion on TG Commodities’ financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2025. This is also called a clean audit opinion, meaning the firm found that the financial statements fairly presented the company’s financial position without reservations.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed that the accounting firm checked the individual bars during the review.
“KPMG counted every single bar as part of its Tether Gold audit,” Ardoino said.
He also said he believes XAU₮ “is on track to become the first true competitor to the gold ETF market.”
Tether Moves Beyond Quarterly Reports
The gold audit is part of Tether’s wider effort to improve how it reports its finances. For years, the company faced criticism for relying mainly on quarterly attestations, which provide a picture of reserves at a particular date instead of a full review of financial statements.
In August 2026, KPMG also completed a full independent financial audit of Tether International, the company behind USDT. The review covered its assets, liabilities, income, cash flows, accounting systems, transactions, records and supporting documents.
Tether said it selected KPMG through a competitive process because the company was already operating at the standards expected of a major accounting firm. It also hired PwC to help prepare its internal systems for the audit.
The USDT audit showed that Tether’s reserves exceeded its liabilities by $6.814 billion as of December 31, 2025.
However, Tether continues to publish quarterly reserve reports for USDT. Its latest report, covering September 30, 2026, and prepared by accounting firm BDO, showed $191.5 billion in reserve assets against $183.5 billion in liabilities, leaving an excess of almost $8 billion.
U.S. Expansion and Regulatory Pressure
Tether’s move toward full audits also comes as it prepares to expand its business in the United States.
Ardoino previously said the company was considering raising money from selected investors to support its plans across stablecoins, artificial intelligence, commodity trading, energy and communications.
The company has also faced regulatory pressure over its reserve reporting. In 2021, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined Tether $41 million over misleading claims about the dollar backing of USDT.
With the United States moving toward federal stablecoin rules under the GENIUS Act, stronger financial reporting has become important to Tether’s expansion plans. Its USAT stablecoin, introduced for American businesses and institutions, is also part of that strategy.
Tether CFO Simon McWilliams said the completed reviews were important steps toward wider financial audits.
“These milestones advance the progress towards audits across the whole of Tether,” he said.
Apart from the gold backing XAU₮, Tether has also built its own large gold reserves, which Ardoino has said are stored in a former nuclear bunker in Switzerland.
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