KPMG Audits Tether Gold Reserves of $2.246 Billion at End-2025
Key Facts
Tether said on November 12, 2026, that KPMG U.S. had completed an independent audit of the financial statements of TG Commodities, issuer of the Tether Gold token, known by the symbol XAU₮, for the year ended December 31, 2025. KPMG issued an unqualified opinion on the statements, according to Tether’s announcement. The company said this means the statements fairly present TG Commodities’ financial position, operations and cash flows in all material respects, in accordance with U.S. accounting principles. The audited figures showed 520,089.350 fine troy ounces of allocated gold at the end of 2025, valued at $2.246 billion. That gold matched 520,089.300 XAU₮ tokens in circulation on the same date.
Tether said the auditors counted and physically examined every bar allocated to back XAU₮, and verified its existence and identifying information. The procedure forms part of the annual audit of the financial statements, while the company said KPMG did not rely solely on confirmations from custodians. The match between the number of allocated ounces and tokens in circulation gives a picture of reserves and tokens on December 31, 2025, but does not change the date of the audited figures. The bars are held in vaults in Switzerland, and Tether says they meet London Good Delivery standards. The company also says token holders own the gold, with each token representing an undivided ownership interest in gold held in specific bars.
Alongside the annual audit, Tether said management engages a qualified independent party to inspect a sample of bars each quarter. According to the company, the inspection is intended to verify information provided by refineries. Chief Financial Officer Simon McWilliams said the audited figures are consistent with the reserves the company published each quarter. Tether quoted him as saying: "The audited figures are consistent with the reserves we published each quarter." He added that the company was making progress toward an audit of the rest of Tether’s business, without the announcement specifying a timetable.
Subsequent company data puts the audit figures in the context of expansion during 2026, with a different measurement date. In an announcement on November 4, Tether said customer holdings of XAU₮ had increased 73% since the start of the year, and that the physical gold backing the token had reached a record value of $3.44 billion. According to the company, the amount of backing gold rose 59%, from 520,089 fine ounces on December 31, 2025, to 827,418 ounces at the end of the third quarter of 2026. The value of reserves increased 53%, from $2.25 billion to $3.44 billion over the comparison period. These figures show that the reserve value reported in November is higher than the end-2025 value in the audit, but they cover a later period and are not part of the audited statements.
In its report for September 30, 2026, Tether said total reserves stood at 827,417.630 fine troy ounces, against 827,417.630000 XAU₮ tokens in circulation. The report put the gold price used at $4,157.41 per ounce and estimated the total market value of reserves at about $3,439,914,329. Chief Executive Paolo Ardoino said token holders had added more than 9 tons of gold equivalent to their holdings during the year, despite gold market volatility. The report quoted Ardoino citing the World Gold Council’s estimate that digital gold could enable $700 billion in demand. These are estimates and statements reported in the company’s announcement, and are not part of KPMG’s opinion on the statements for the year ended in 2025.
The reserve growth reported in 2026 also extended to the number of bars stored in Switzerland, according to Tether. The company said it added 766 bars meeting the London Good Delivery standard through the end of the third quarter. The count rose from 1,291 bars on December 31, 2025, to 2,057 bars on September 30, 2026. These figures remain part of the company’s third-quarter reserve update, while KPMG’s audit covers the financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2025. In EL7 data, the daily close for XAUTUSD was about $3,972.09 on November 11, 2026, the day before the audit announcement.