KPMG audit finds Tether Gold backed by allocated bullion

The audit also verified identifying information for each bar, rather than relying only on confirmations from custodians, Tether said. Chief Financial Officer Simon McWilliams called it the second unqualified audit opinion for the company, following an audit completed in August. He said Tether had started with its largest and most complex businesses, USD₮ and XAU₮.

Chief Executive Paolo Ardoino described the audit as an early step in expanding digital gold. He said XAU₮ could eventually compete with gold exchange-traded funds by offering faster settlement, lower custody costs and greater transparency through blockchain technology.

Tether said the gold backing XAU₮ increased 59% in the first nine months of 2026, reaching 25.7 tonnes, valued at $3.44 billion, at the end of September. Separately, its early-November third-quarter report showed the company’s total disclosed gold holdings—including reserves for USD₮—fell by about three tonnes in the quarter, to 165 tonnes from 168 tonnes at the end of June. That followed purchases of roughly 14 tonnes in the second quarter.

The World Gold Council said last month that digital innovation could expand gold’s role beyond a traditional store of value. Its report estimated that overcoming key barriers to adoption could unlock up to $700 billion in latent demand, creating a market broadly comparable in size to physically backed gold ETFs today.