Tether's gold token gets a Big Four audit, its second after USDT

Tether says KPMG U.S. has completed an independent audit of the 2025 financial statements of TG Commodities, the issuer of its gold-backed XAUT token, and issued an unqualified — "clean" — opinion. The announcement, reported by The Block on Thursday, follows KPMG's audit of USDT issuer Tether International, which Tether disclosed in August.

Per Tether, KPMG physically inspected and counted every individual gold bar backing XAUT, checking the identifying information on each. As of Dec. 31, 2025, TG Commodities held 520,089.350 fine troy ounces of gold, valued at $2.246 billion, against 520,089.300 XAUT in circulation — a near-exact 1:1 match. The gold is stored in Switzerland and, Tether says, belongs to token holders, with each XAUT representing "an undivided ownership interest in gold on specified bars."

For the USDT audit announced in August, a KPMG spokesperson confirmed directly to The Block that the firm had issued an unqualified opinion. The clean opinion on XAUT comes from Tether's own announcement; The Block attributes it to the company.

Tether CFO Simon McWilliams framed the sequencing as intentional: "Our strategy was deliberate: start with the largest and most complex businesses, USDT and XAUT, and set the standard for the industry." He said the audited figures matched Tether's quarterly reserve reports, and that the company is working toward audits of its remaining businesses.

Key facts

• KPMG U.S. issued an unqualified opinion on TG Commodities' 2025 financial statements — Tether announcement, via The Block (Nov. 12, 2026).
• Holdings at Dec. 31, 2025: 520,089.350 fine troy ounces, worth $2.246 billion, against 520,089.300 XAUT outstanding — Tether, via The Block.
• KPMG said to have inspected and counted every bar; gold held in Switzerland — Tether, via The Block.
• Second Tether audit after USDT issuer Tether International, disclosed August 2026 (also unqualified, confirmed to The Block by KPMG) — The Block.
• CFO Simon McWilliams: audited figures matched quarterly reserve reports; audits of other businesses to follow — The Block.

The real-world read

Treat the announcement as what it is — Tether publicizing a result it commissioned and paid for — but the substance is real: a full financial-statement audit with physical bar counts is a genuine step up from the point-in-time attestations Tether relied on for years and long resisted replacing. The caveat is scope. XAUT is a small corner of the empire at $2.246 billion; USDT, the far larger and more scrutinized business, got its own KPMG audit in August, but the "rest of Tether's businesses" McWilliams references remain unaudited. McWilliams' claim that the audited numbers matched the quarterly reserve reports is a point in Tether's favor, but it's the company characterizing its own auditor's work — worth confirming when KPMG's opinion is published in full rather than summarized. "Setting the standard for the industry" is the company's framing, not a verified fact.

Opinion, and whose

McWilliams (Tether CFO) casts the two audits as deliberately starting with the biggest, hardest businesses to "set the standard for the industry" — a characterization from an interested party, not an independent assessment. No outside analyst view was offered.

Sources

• The Block (reputable secondary), Nov. 12, 2026 — reported the XAUT audit, the figures, and the McWilliams quotes; independently confirmed the earlier USDT audit opinion with KPMG. Its account is sourced to Tether's own announcement, which is marketing from an interested party for the XAUT figures.
• Tether / TG Commodities announcement (primary, interested party) — source of the holdings figures, custody details, and audit claim.

Not financial advice.