Key facts
- Tether said KPMG physically counted and inspected every gold bar backing XAUT rather than relying only on custodian confirmations.
- The gold backing XAUT is held in vaults in Switzerland, and each token represents an ownership interest in gold on specific bars, per Tether.
- Tether said it made $1.5 billion in net operating profit in the third quarter.
- Tether still publishes quarterly attestations for USDT; the latest, by BDO, showed an excess reserve buffer of almost $8 billion.
KPMG issued an unqualified, or clean, audit opinion on the 2025 financial statements of TG Commodities, the issuer of gold-backed stablecoin Tether Gold (XAUT), Tether said on November 12, 2026. The opinion covers the year ended December 31, 2025 and is the token's first full audit.
Tether said TG Commodities held 520,089.350 troy ounces of allocated gold, valued at $2.246 billion, against 520,089.300 XAUT tokens in issue at the end of 2025. The gold sits in vaults in Switzerland, and each token represents an ownership interest in gold on specific bars, according to the company.
As part of the audit, KPMG physically counted and inspected every gold bar backing the token rather than relying only on confirmations from custodians, Tether said. "KPMG counted every single bar as part of its Tether Gold audit," CEO Paolo Ardoino said, adding that he believes XAUT "is on track to become the first true competitor to the gold ETF market."
The XAUT audit is Tether's second by a Big Four firm. In August, KPMG issued a clean opinion on Tether International, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, in what the company called the largest inaugural audit in history, Decrypt reported at the time. Tether had first said earlier in 2026 that a Big Four firm was auditing it without naming the firm before confirming KPMG.
Tether still publishes quarterly attestations for USDT. The latest, prepared by BDO and covering the period to September 30, showed total reserve assets of $191.5 billion against $183.5 billion in liabilities, an excess reserve buffer of almost $8 billion, according to the report. Tether said it made $1.5 billion in net operating profit in the third quarter. "These milestones advance the progress towards audits across the whole of Tether," CFO Simon McWilliams said.