Tether finally gets a full audit by KPMG

[Dogedegen]

I don't think USDT is safe for the long term either, although I wish I thought differently back in 2017 when I wanted to "freeze" some of my crypto actives and I didn't dare because of the scary stories that were told about stablecoins and Tether in particular.

The possibility of collapse always exists, but the probability varies, and does not always correspond to the mood of the market, so there may be more likely to be problems now than 8 years ago.

You are reading some stories that don't make sense or people try to blame Tether for what they did. One of the first rules of internet is to not believe stories, people like to invent all kinds of things just to avoid admitting that they did something wrong and to not accept responsibility. I will give some examples. If you by some reason receive Tether that was known to be part of some crime and then it gets frozen in your wallet, how can you blame Tether for this? They are complying with regulations and even if you unknowingly accepted money from a crime you are still responsible for this. The same thing would happen to you if you received a large amount of money from a known criminal or money laundering company to your bank account. This is part of the process, of the system and is a known risk. So what also happens is people try to make some money being part of small online crimes or sometimes even bigger ones and then when they get caught they try to twist the story and create public pressure for Tether with PR to see if they can force their hand for a release. Compliance also works on a cost basis, they can't spend endless money on a single cases.

In normal use and when we exclude the group that received unknowingly bad tokens, nobody gets their stablecoin frozen. I have never heard of anyone directly who has had anything frozen. If it happened regularly then these things could never grow so big, nobody would use it. Similar things happened with P2P and local bitcoin. Some people took bad offers or offers with strangers that don't have any reputation or reviews and then things got bad. Instead of admitting their mistakes, they tried to report the stories as P2P being dangerous. It is not dangerous when done properly, it is very dangerous when done the wrong way.

[WillyAp]

I don't think USDT is safe for the long term either, although I wish I thought differently back in 2017 when I wanted to "freeze" some of my crypto actives and I didn't dare because of the scary stories that were told about stablecoins and Tether in particular.

The possibility of collapse always exists, but the probability varies, and does not always correspond to the mood of the market, so there may be more likely to be problems now than 8 years ago.

You are reading some stories that don't make sense or people try to blame Tether for what they did.

Well you need to be online and have a open mind to all, in times of AI not that easy.
Take a pick: 

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/01/12/tether-freezes-usd182-million-in-usdt-stablecoin-across-five-tron-blockchain-wallets
https://www.freedomdollar.com/en/usdt-blacklist
https://fincrimecentral.com/tether-wallet-freeze-iranian-sanctions-tron/
https://blocksec.com/blog/1-26-billion-frozen-usdt-blacklisting-on-ethereum-and-tron-in-2025
https://blocksec.ai/en/usdt-freeze

[Dogedegen]

I don't think USDT is safe for the long term either, although I wish I thought differently back in 2017 when I wanted to "freeze" some of my crypto actives and I didn't dare because of the scary stories that were told about stablecoins and Tether in particular.

The possibility of collapse always exists, but the probability varies, and does not always correspond to the mood of the market, so there may be more likely to be problems now than 8 years ago.

You are reading some stories that don't make sense or people try to blame Tether for what they did.

In normal use and when we exclude the group that received unknowingly bad tokens, nobody gets their stablecoin frozen.

Well you need to be online and have a open mind to all, in times of AI not that easy.
Take a pick: 

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/01/12/tether-freezes-usd182-million-in-usdt-stablecoin-across-five-tron-blockchain-wallets
https://www.freedomdollar.com/en/usdt-blacklist
https://fincrimecentral.com/tether-wallet-freeze-iranian-sanctions-tron/
https://blocksec.com/blog/1-26-billion-frozen-usdt-blacklisting-on-ethereum-and-tron-in-2025
https://blocksec.ai/en/usdt-freeze

You cut out the most important part of my post and then create a straw man defense. I added it back. I did not claim that freezing does not happen, it happens regularly. I claimed that freezing almost never happens to innocent people, and this is a fact. I have never ever found a single person that I can verify got funds frozen and that I can verify they are innocent. Many people who I know and people that they know use USDT often and some other stablecoins too, and nobody knows a single case of where this has happened. All the examples that you wrote do not contradict my claim. Next time please try to read the full post and then write a proper response accordingly, because the argument that you think I made was quite foolish. A single check with ChatGPT would confirm that Tether and others have to comply with sanctions and do freezes when needed, even I wrote in the middle of my post that they are doing these things for these reasons. You can't be an international financial company and not comply with US sanctions, it is not possible.

The freezes were part of Tether's policy to comply with U.S. Treasury sanctions and were executed in a coordinated manner.

No normal person or user is going to be part of treasury sanctions. Let's be real and practical and not create fear over nothing. When we scare people with false information they have a higher chance to make mistakes and even lose money. BTC is the better choice, but it can not fulfill every single utility and need because all things have tradeoffs. Nobody even cares about most of the users if they are not committing any crimes, it would cost too much money and there would be no gain from that activity.

[Filicius]

...

...

...

...

Although your conversation about sanctions is very interesting and I have learnt a lot reading your comments, what I meant in my first post is that I wanted to "freeze" the value of my crypto assets, not that funds in USDT could be frozen by third parties (which can also be).

So sorry for the misunderstanding, but what I was saying is that when the collapse of 2018 started, although I could've swapped some coins to USDT and that way secure some value before prices continued to fall, I did not dare to do it because of the bad news on stablecoins, that generated insecurity at that time. News whose dark omens have not yet been fulfilled for the medium or small investor, and that's why I regret not having used them at that time.

[justdimin]

I don't think USDT is safe for the long term either, although I wish I thought differently back in 2017 when I wanted to "freeze" some of my crypto actives and I didn't dare because of the scary stories that were told about stablecoins and Tether in particular.

The possibility of collapse always exists, but the probability varies, and does not always correspond to the mood of the market, so there may be more likely to be problems now than 8 years ago.

You are reading some stories that don't make sense or people try to blame Tether for what they did.

In normal use and when we exclude the group that received unknowingly bad tokens, nobody gets their stablecoin frozen.

Well you need to be online and have a open mind to all, in times of AI not that easy.
Take a pick: 

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/01/12/tether-freezes-usd182-million-in-usdt-stablecoin-across-five-tron-blockchain-wallets
https://www.freedomdollar.com/en/usdt-blacklist
https://fincrimecentral.com/tether-wallet-freeze-iranian-sanctions-tron/
https://blocksec.com/blog/1-26-billion-frozen-usdt-blacklisting-on-ethereum-and-tron-in-2025
https://blocksec.ai/en/usdt-freeze

You cut out the most important part of my post and then create a straw man defense. I added it back. I did not claim that freezing does not happen, it happens regularly. I claimed that freezing almost never happens to innocent people, and this is a fact. I have never ever found a single person that I can verify got funds frozen and that I can verify they are innocent. Many people who I know and people that they know use USDT often and some other stablecoins too, and nobody knows a single case of where this has happened. All the examples that you wrote do not contradict my claim. Next time please try to read the full post and then write a proper response accordingly, because the argument that you think I made was quite foolish. A single check with ChatGPT would confirm that Tether and others have to comply with sanctions and do freezes when needed, even I wrote in the middle of my post that they are doing these things for these reasons. You can't be an international financial company and not comply with US sanctions, it is not possible.

Does that part really matter? Are you sure? What if you are considered "bad" by the FBI and the media goes along with it and claims that you are bad now? Is it ok for Tether to freeze your money and take it from you? I personally would not feel ok about it; I think you would neither. Why are we in Bitcoin? What is the purpose? Because it is decentralised and no bank or company or government can reach it, isn't it? What do we say? Not your seeds, not your coins. Why do we say that? Because even if you have Bitcoin but it is on binance, then if you are considered bad, they will freeze it there too. So not only should you have bitcoin, but you should have it in your own wallet and under your own protection.

So why do we have people who use Tether even when faced with these? Because they are gullible enough to think that they are "good" people, not realising that Tether can freeze it as long as there are even small court cases against you. So be sure that you are ok with Tether, because the moment they dislike you, they can take your money, and claim you are a bad person, and the world will not care if they are right or not; they will act just like you, and assume you are bad and not care.

[Fiatless]

How has far the plot has drifted from where it started? The first energy of bitcoin was to eliminate trust from institutions. We are all trying to create p2p money without any permission or verification from anyone. And now the biggest celebration in stablecoin history is that a Big Four accounting firm said the numbers check out. We literally came full circle back to institutional validation. Not complaining, just noticing.

The real users of USDT could not care less about KPMG or audit standards. To them it is simply a means to carry a dollar on their phone without having to open a U.S. Bank account. That is the actual product. All the rest is for the Western crypto twitter.

Tether hold over 120 billion in Treasuries. They earn the interest. The holders of the tokens receive nothing. The collective agreement that USDT equals one dollar.

The audit answers yesterday's question beautifully. I am just not sure it is the question that matters going forward.

Tether keeps your money and makes a profit from it while you receive nothing  . That's crazy. I know someone who was receiving payments in BTC, and he would convert it to stablecoin. He preferred to hold Tether instead of Bitcoin. I asked him why, and he said Bitcoin was unstable. People trade their safety for convenience.

I have said it that this external audit by KPMG means nothing to me. I would never hodl a stablecoin when I have other better options like Bitcoin.

[Hamza2424]

So they have $6.8B extra? That's crazy I never thought they would be that chill but the last two times they were audited, they proved wrong so they were fined as well but this time they proved themselves to be right and yep if it is really true they are not the black swan event I was expecting them to be.

But why are they still thrown under the bus by MiCA or US authorities! Why are they promoting USDC more than USDT!

Maybe they want another competitor, maybe something to do with marketing but anyway if Tether had all these funds all along they really faced all the allegations with very calm behavior like I could have said many things to the haters and those who never believed but there might be something what if the data shown is wrong, can we even trust KPMG?

[Dogedegen]

Does that part really matter? Are you sure? What if you are considered "bad" by the FBI and the media goes along with it and claims that you are bad now? Is it ok for Tether to freeze your money and take it from you? I personally would not feel ok about it; I think you would neither. Why are we in Bitcoin? What is the purpose? Because it is decentralised and no bank or company or government can reach it, isn't it? What do we say? Not your seeds, not your coins. Why do we say that? Because even if you have Bitcoin but it is on binance, then if you are considered bad, they will freeze it there too. So not only should you have bitcoin, but you should have it in your own wallet and under your own protection.

This has nothing to do with normal and innocent people, please stop exaggerating and making up things. Nobody cares about the average innocent person, there is not going to be a situation where they suddenly random innocent people are considered bad in a democracy. In your example of FBI and media, they would not even acknowledge that you exist if a democracy is working good. So please stop and start writing things accurately and as they are. Tether and many other tokens can be frozen, but it almost never happens to innocent people and even if it does they have various processes at their disposal which they can use to prove their innocence and get them unfrozen.

So why do we have people who use Tether even when faced with these? Because they are gullible enough to think that they are "good" people, not realising that Tether can freeze it as long as there are even small court cases against you.

I don't think calling people gullible and thinking they are stupid for using Tether for reasons that you don't is the correct choice to move forward your argument.. Very few users maybe do not realize that it can be frozen. Anyone who is working with it seriously knows and is running those AML checks before receiving something too.

So be sure that you are ok with Tether, because the moment they dislike you, they can take your money, and claim you are a bad person, and the world will not care if they are right or not; they will act just like you, and assume you are bad and not care.

This never happens, Tether does not care who you are personally. They have a very strong business incentive not to care about you and to never act wrongly against people as much as possible, so please don't make things up and learn how incentives and businesses work. Your post can be seen as one more FUD post against Tether that is made up of scenarios that never happen.

So they have $6.8B extra? That's crazy I never thought they would be that chill but the last two times they were audited, they proved wrong so they were fined as well but this time they proved themselves to be right and yep if it is really true they are not the black swan event I was expecting them to be.

But why are they still thrown under the bus by MiCA or US authorities! Why are they promoting USDC more than USDT!

Maybe they want another competitor, maybe something to do with marketing but anyway if Tether had all these funds all along they really faced all the allegations with very calm behavior like I could have said many things to the haters and those who never believed but there might be something what if the data shown is wrong, can we even trust KPMG?

From a financial side it is really a very sound business, right now it is one of the leanest and most profitable businesses when you also factor in assets. Over the years people have created FUD against them, sometimes intentionally at other times unintentionally but there was never objective evidence that could be validated. There have been all kinds of theories and things like that, but I don't remember seeing any good evidence in any claim in the past and there have been many about their insolvency and other things.

[lionheart78]

That's crazy. I know someone who was receiving payments in BTC, and he would convert it to stablecoin. He preferred to hold Tether instead of Bitcoin. I asked him why, and he said Bitcoin was unstable. People trade their safety for convenience.

I read this as people trading safety for stability since the person stated the reason why he prefers to hold Tether instead of Bitcoin.  And we cannot blame people for that.  Those who prefer preservation of the asset value over speculating on future profit will definitely choose the one that will presently show them that the value of their asset is not wildly fluctuating.

I have said it that this external audit by KPMG means nothing to me. I would never hodl a stablecoin when I have other better options like Bitcoin.

Well, to anyone who is not into tether will say the same thing.  But it would be different to those who hold tether on their stash.

Btw, to those who are wondering about KPMG, it is said that it is one of the "Big Four" accounting firms, which means one of the biggest or largest professional services and accounting firms.

[The Cryptovator]

It’s good to see the audit went well, although there is a lot of controversy about the tether. Tether has become one of the biggest factors in the crypto industry. If, in case, Tether collapses for any reason, the whole crypto market will collapse. We really can’t imagine what would happen with the crypto industry.

Tether keeps your money and makes a profit from it while you receive nothing  . That's crazy. I know someone who was receiving payments in BTC, and he would convert it to stablecoin. He preferred to hold Tether instead of Bitcoin. I asked him why, and he said Bitcoin was unstable. People trade their safety for convenience.

I have said it that this external audit by KPMG means nothing to me. I would never hodl a stablecoin when I have other better options like Bitcoin.

Probably at some point you need to use stablecoins, either Tether or any other. End of the day, we have to exchange our Bitcoin holdings for stablecoins; otherwise, we can’t secure our profits. Sometimes we hold the tether to take advantage of the volatility and buy Bitcoin cheaper. Holding stable coins doesn’t mean they are stupid anyway.

[internetional]

It’s good to see the audit went well

You're writing as if the positive audit results are already a fact. But that's not really the case!

It has already been pointed out several times here that the results have not been published, and Tether can present the outcome however it wants because nobody has actually seen the audit. Tether has already been caught doing something similar before, when it claimed that its reserves had successfully passed an audit, only for it to later turn out that the audit had not revealed an important detail that everyone had simply taken on faith. Tether was even fined tens of millions of dollars over this.

It's entirely possible that this time the situation will turn out to be exactly the same.

[bangjoe]

It’s good to see the audit went well

You're writing as if the positive audit results are already a fact. But that's not really the case!

It has already been pointed out several times here that the results have not been published, and Tether can present the outcome however it wants because nobody has actually seen the audit. Tether has already been caught doing something similar before, when it claimed that its reserves had successfully passed an audit, only for it to later turn out that the audit had not revealed an important detail that everyone had simply taken on faith. Tether was even fined tens of millions of dollars over this.

It's entirely possible that this time the situation will turn out to be exactly the same.

I really hope that our bad thoughts or bad allegations against Tether do not happen, this is my hope before everything is really published.
If something happens that we suspect and we fear might be a big storm into the crypto ecosystem, however tether is the owner of the USDT stablecoin and becomes the Top 1 in the crypto market, I don't imagine if bad things happen even if it makes them get severe penalties.

But even though there is a" carcass " that is indeed hidden in their activities and successfully passed the audit this time, it is just like a time bomb that could be revealed in the future, and potentially create a storm in the crypto market, we have seen what happens with UST (destroyed), especially if this happens again on USDT.

[Hamza2424]

From a financial side it is really a very sound business, right now it is one of the leanest and most profitable businesses when you also factor in assets. Over the years people have created FUD against them, sometimes intentionally at other times unintentionally but there was never objective evidence that could be validated. There have been all kinds of theories and things like that, but I don't remember seeing any good evidence in any claim in the past and there have been many about their insolvency and other things.

I was surprised because in my knowledge this is going to be exposed soon, and that will be the biggest black swan event of the history. But this changes a lot of things, this topic is not the first time I heard about KPMG, I heard about it before, they did not share an official number yet or any other useful data but their statement that they have unofficial announcement which the author of the article said in which it was reported in OP and in other places that this is a big thing.

So we all bought their statements.

We think it is a big thing it might be or might not be, but if KPMG really did it and they really have that much funds in extra then they not reacted at all, otherwise I would have gone crazy over such allegations. I was one of those people who used to say it is going to die soon and black swan event will be our destiny.

[fillippone]

That was great news, and they have been working toward this for years.
I guess that Tehter made their errors at the beginning of their story. Not necessarily driven by greed, but out of inexperience, managing something they weren't even able to imagine where it could have ended up.
Now they are a very big player in crypto, namely, they are the central bank of crypto.
Of course, they now need a little "recognition" from the traditional financial world.

[Dogedegen]

That's crazy. I know someone who was receiving payments in BTC, and he would convert it to stablecoin. He preferred to hold Tether instead of Bitcoin. I asked him why, and he said Bitcoin was unstable. People trade their safety for convenience.

I read this as people trading safety for stability since the person stated the reason why he prefers to hold Tether instead of Bitcoin.  And we cannot blame people for that.  Those who prefer preservation of the asset value over speculating on future profit will definitely choose the one that will presently show them that the value of their asset is not wildly fluctuating.

A lot of people don't understand what is the point of Tether or how it all works besides it being a token, that is why they criticize or act surprised why people choose it. It comes from a misunderstanding on what this is about. For most of the users of Tether it is not about Bitcoin versus Tether, it is about providing a digital way to access and use USD for large parts of the population who can't have access to USD at all or for those for who access is difficult and expensive. While Tether USDT naturally is not the same thing as using USD directly, it provides this utility like a proxy. People easily forget that before these stablecoins and some online banks, the majority of the people of the world couldn't access USD at all and some only with many restrictions, costs and tracking.

So people who are using a stablecoin such as USDT are often not people who are real crypto users at all. Just because someone has a wallet or exchange account that does not mean that they understood what Bitcoin is about. We are talking about completely different kinds of people here and it makes perfect sense for them to use USDT. Once a person understands Bitcoin, they will choose it over USDT but until that point they have many other reasons to use the dollar first. Actually using USDT is much easier to understand and find utility for for many people, but to become a person who recognizes Bitcoin's value is much harder. Even so, we are slowly gaining more and more people who understand this but we should not criticize those too harshly that yet don't do it. You might scare away people who soon would become Bitcoin users..

I have said it that this external audit by KPMG means nothing to me. I would never hodl a stablecoin when I have other better options like Bitcoin.

Well, to anyone who is not into tether will say the same thing.  But it would be different to those who hold tether on their stash.

People should not even comment on this if it means nothing to them.

I was surprised because in my knowledge this is going to be exposed soon, and that will be the biggest black swan event of the history. But this changes a lot of things, this topic is not the first time I heard about KPMG, I heard about it before, they did not share an official number yet or any other useful data but their statement that they have unofficial announcement which the author of the article said in which it was reported in OP and in other places that this is a big thing.

Tether is a very serious business with a very profitable business model, most of the criticism that it received over the years were just pure FUD that were not based on any data. Speculating against something like that is often wrong.

That was great news, and they have been working toward this for years.
I guess that Tehter made their errors at the beginning of their story. Not necessarily driven by greed, but out of inexperience, managing something they weren't even able to imagine where it could have ended up.
Now they are a very big player in crypto, namely, they are the central bank of crypto.
Of course, they now need a little "recognition" from the traditional financial world.

This is a good thing for Tether directly but also the whole crypto market, and I am glad that you recognize that too.

[YellowSwap]

So you people now trust USDT after they passed KPMG audit? When too much people want one thing to happen either it's good or bad it's not going to happen, haven't you people noticed this already?

Tether will be one of the best as they have always been, because people wanted them gone or dead, for no reason behind It they just feel like Tether should go and seize to exists.

Typical mind of the people in the world today.

[fillippone]

So you people now trust USDT after they passed KPMG audit? When too much people want one thing to happen either it's good or bad it's not going to happen, haven't you people noticed this already?

Tether will be one of the best as they have always been, because people wanted them gone or dead, for no reason behind It they just feel like Tether should go and seize to exists.

Typical mind of the people in the world today.

Tether is a great company, and they are really good at marketing their vision of stable company. Of course they have huge interests, and they look for profit, but I once listened to an interview to Paolo Ardoino who said they are trying to make the transitioning from Fiat system to Bitcoin system as smooth as possibile for the higher possible number of people.

[henmark]

Tether keeps your money and makes a profit from it while you receive nothing  . That's crazy. I know someone who was receiving payments in BTC, and he would convert it to stablecoin. He preferred to hold Tether instead of Bitcoin. I asked him why, and he said Bitcoin was unstable. People trade their safety for convenience.

I have said it that this external audit by KPMG means nothing to me. I would never hodl a stablecoin when I have other better options like Bitcoin.

Probably at some point you need to use stablecoins, either Tether or any other. End of the day, we have to exchange our Bitcoin holdings for stablecoins; otherwise, we can’t secure our profits. Sometimes we hold the tether to take advantage of the volatility and buy Bitcoin cheaper. Holding stable coins doesn’t mean they are stupid anyway.

Use them? Sure. Hold them? I do not think so. Why would we need to have USDT in our accounts? Like what is the "need" for it? I could just take out fiat into my bank account and even get savings interest from the bank to do that; USDT doesn't even have that much of it. There are a few places that give a return, but very low as well; banks are offering a lot more.

So in the end, there is no need to have USDT for the long term. If you want to move money from one place to another, then I understand using USDT, because it is stable, and when someone says "pay 100 dollars here", then using 100 USDT is easier than calculating how many bitcoins that makes. But in the end, after it is done and you used it, there is no need to actually keep holding it, and it should turn into either bitcoin or fiat.

[Dogedegen]

So you people now trust USDT after they passed KPMG audit? When too much people want one thing to happen either it's good or bad it's not going to happen, haven't you people noticed this already?

Tether will be one of the best as they have always been, because people wanted them gone or dead, for no reason behind It they just feel like Tether should go and seize to exists.

Typical mind of the people in the world today.

I don't think that your interpretation about the situation with this is accurate. It seems to me more that people who were accepting of USDT before the audit are happy about the audit, but the people that were against them for years refuse to listen and just continue their wrong position. Tether is a great company, we may not like them for idealistic reasons but the empire that they have built is great. This kind of response shows that people are being irrational when they have the wrong belief about something. No audit in the world can assure us that Tether will never collapse, so in theory the people that are spreading FUD could be right eventually but this kind of thinking is wrong. The same thing can be said just about anything, instead they should accept that they have been wrong.

Tether is a great company, and they are really good at marketing their vision of stable company. Of course they have huge interests, and they look for profit, but I once listened to an interview to Paolo Ardoino who said they are trying to make the transitioning from Fiat system to Bitcoin system as smooth as possibile for the higher possible number of people.

They really had good execution of the whole thing, rarely does some company grow like this.

[Woodie]

This was definitely a mammoth task for KPMG especially that this was out of their comfort zone having to deal with cryptocurrecies.. btw thought Tether has the power to mint new coins, did KPMG account for that tether could have more "current assets" or it's now on a limited supply and not forgetting the central power it has on these tether assets of freezing them and all that..

If they have to announce to the world, I also wonder if this audit report is available to the public