Tether Gold Gets Clean KPMG Audit Confirming $2.2B in Physical Gold Backing

Tether Gold, the gold-backed stablecoin XAUT, has received an unqualified audit opinion from KPMG, confirming full backing by physical gold.

KPMG issued the opinion on the 2025 financial statements of TG Commodities, the issuer of XAUT, finding that the statements fairly present the company's financial position.

As of the end of 2025, TG Commodities held 520,089.350 troy ounces of allocated gold, valued at $2.246 billion, against 520,089.300 XAUT tokens in issue.

The gold is held in vaults in Switzerland, and each token represents an ownership interest in gold on specific bars.

KPMG physically counted and inspected every gold bar backing the token, rather than relying only on confirmations from custodians.

Ardoino added that he believes XAUT is on track to become the first true competitor to the gold ETF market.

Audit follows clean opinion on USDT

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 its flagship USDT stablecoin.

For years, Tether faced criticism for relying on quarterly attestations, which offer a snapshot of reserves at a single point in time, rather than a full audit of its finances.

Tether first said earlier this year that it was being audited by a Big Four firm without naming it, before confirming KPMG.

Tether still publishes quarterly attestations for USDT. Its latest, prepared by accounting firm BDO and covering the period to September 30, showed total reserve assets of $191.5 billion against $183.5 billion in liabilities, giving it an excess reserve buffer of almost $8 billion.

Tether said it made $1.5 billion in net operating profit in the third quarter.

Tether builds its own gold reserves

Separately from the gold backing XAUT, Tether has also built up its own large gold reserves, and Ardoino has said it will keep adding to its stash, which it stores in a former nuclear bunker in Switzerland.