Tether Gold Clears First Big Four Audit as KPMG Confirms 520,089 Ounces Back $2.25B Token Supply With Clean 2025 Opinion
Tether Gold (XAUT) has completed its first full financial audit by a Big Four accounting firm, with KPMG U.S. issuing an unqualified opinion on the 2025 financial statements of TG Commodities, the token’s issuer. Tether announced the result on Thursday, 12 November 2026, more than five years after XAUT launched.
An unqualified, or clean, opinion means KPMG found the statements fairly present the company’s financial position without reservations. It marks the second Tether stablecoin to complete a full Big Four audit.
Inside The 520,089-Ounce Balance Sheet
At 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, according to Tether. The near-identical figures put backing at roughly one troy ounce per token.
The gold is held in vaults in Switzerland, and each token represents an ownership interest in gold on specific bars. As part of the audit, KPMG physically counted and inspected the bars, rather than relying solely on issuer records.
That physical count is the mechanism that separates this exercise from earlier limited disclosures. An unqualified opinion on statements that include verified bullion holdings gives holders a third-party check on both the quantity of gold and the token count it is matched against.
KPMG’s Second Clean Tether Opinion This Year
The XAUT audit follows KPMG’s clean opinion on USDT issuer Tether International in August 2026. Tether framed the gold audit as part of a push toward audits across its whole business, making XAUT the second of its stablecoins to clear a Big Four review.
The sequencing matters: the USDT opinion landed first, and the gold-backed token followed roughly three months later. Both cover financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025.
XAUT Trades Near $3,973 as Gold ETF Slips
XAUTUSDT was at 3,973 on 11 November 2026, down 1.39% on the day, according to Massive data. The gold ETF proxy GLD stood at 365.88, down 0.97%, as of 12 November 2026.
The audit confirms backing as of the 2025 year-end balance sheet, not the current market value of the gold. The $2.246 billion figure reflects year-end 2025 valuation, so the live token price and the audited reserve value are measuring different dates.
For holders, the operative number is the 0.050-token gap between 520,089.350 ounces held and 520,089.300 tokens issued, a margin that leaves the token slightly over-collateralized in ounce terms at the audited date.
What The Next Audit Would Need To Show
The clean opinion covers the year ended 31 December 2025. The next test is whether KPMG repeats the physical count and issues a similarly unqualified opinion for the 2026 financial statements, and whether Tether extends full Big Four audits to its remaining stablecoins.
A subsequent opinion that carries qualifications, or a token count that runs ahead of verified bullion, would undercut the backing thesis this audit supports. Until then, the audited figures stand as of 31 December 2025, with XAUT trading at 3,973 on 11 November 2026.
Sources: crypto.news