The company issuing USDT hired Big 4 auditors for the first time

Tether, the company behind the world’s most popular stablecoin USDT, said it has selected a “Big 4” auditing firm to conduct its first full audit of its financial statements. “The Big 4 firm was selected through a competitive process because our organization inherently operates to Big 4 auditing standards,” said Chief Financial Officer Simon McWilliams.

Over the years, Tether has published periodic confirmation reports of assets backing the value of its $184 billion USDT vault. However, a full audit can go deeper, requiring a detailed review of assets, liabilities, control systems and reporting processes.

Tether has not yet named the company that will conduct the audit. The term “Big 4” refers to the world’s leading auditing firms including Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC.

A full audit by a Big 4 firm is one of the most rigorous and globally recognized forms of financial review. For Tether, the participation of the Big 4 underscores their commitment to providing solid assurance that USDT is fully backed, highly liquid and operated with world-class risk management.

This move comes after many years of investors continuously commenting that Tether has not fully proven that the value of USDT is backed by a corresponding amount of real assets. The company said its asset portfolio consists mainly of US Treasury bonds along with smaller allocations to gold, Bitcoin and a range of loans. This structure has raised doubts from critics. Many people question the liquidity and risk level of certain asset classes, especially during periods of strong market volatility.

Tether is the world’s largest issuer of USDT – stablecoin with a capitalization of more than 184 million USD and used by more than 550 million people. Stablecoin is a digital currency developed on the blockchain and has the role of stabilizing prices, anchored to the value of real assets. With USDT, one token will cost the equivalent of one USD (1:1 conversion ratio).

This digital currency serves as a safe haven, reduces the risk of price fluctuations, and is widely used as a transaction intermediary. When the cryptocurrency market fluctuates strongly, investors often transfer assets from Bitcoin or risky tokens to stablecoins to maintain liquidity and wait for reinvestment opportunities. Therefore, stablecoins are considered “cash” in the digital asset ecosystem.

Tether’s hiring of Big 4 auditors is also seen as a way to increase the competitiveness of its stablecoin against rival Circle and the USDC token. USDC has long been famous for its regulatory compliance and has the advantage of transparency, especially in the eyes of institutional investors. Some analysts have been outspoken that this development will cause problems for Circle, especially if Tether combines the audit with its ambitions to expand deeper into the US market.

The above concerns are reflected in Circle’s stock price. Their stock code fell about 20% on March 24, sliding from nearly 125 USD to about 101 USD, marking the sharpest decline since listing in June 2025.

In October 2025, at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc, Tether representative said he wanted to cooperate and accompany Vietnamese partners to develop the crypto asset trading market. They are also willing to share experiences in building a legal framework for transactions, to attract external resources, and support growth for the Vietnamese economy. Tether also affirmed that Vietnam is a potential and important market for the company.

Last year, the Da Nang Department of Science and Technology received a proposal for a pilot for international tourists to use USDT to exchange goods and services. The project works in a way that international customers use digital wallets to scan payment codes in USDT, while stores in Vietnam still receive VND. Transaction processing will be done through an intermediary system. This is one of the ideas that Da Nang is considering for controlled testing (sandbox).