kpmg

Tether announced that KPMG U.S. has completed an independent audit of the financial statements of TG Commodities, the issuer of Tether Gold (XAU₮), as of December 31, 2025, and issued an unqualified opinion. The audit shows that XAU₮ is fully backed by physical gold. This is the second stablecoin under Tether to complete an audit by one of the Big Four accounting firms, following Tether International, the issuer of USDT, in August of this year.During the audit, KPMG conducted a physical count and verification of each gold bar backing XAU₮, rather than relying solely on confirmations from custodians. As of December 31, 2025, TG Commodities holds 520,089.350 ounces of pure gold, valued at $2.246 billion, corresponding to the issued 520,089.300 XAU₮.The gold is stored in Swiss vaults and meets the London Good Delivery standards, with ownership belonging to the token holders, where each token corresponds to an indivisible ownership of specific gold bars. The company also hires an independent third party to conduct quarterly sampling tests of the gold bars.CEO Paolo Ardoino stated that XAU₮ is expected to become the first true competitor in the gold ETF market, as gold can be settled instantly, with lower custody costs and higher transparency. CFO Simon McWilliams mentioned that auditing the largest and most complex USDT and XAU₮ is paving the way for a comprehensive audit of the entire company.

KPMG recently released a report indicating that global fintech investment will reach 103.1 billion USD in the first half of 2026, with over 2,100 transactions. Among these, the payments sector attracted 44.2 billion USD, the digital assets sector received 11.1 billion USD in investments, and there were a total of 800 AI-related fintech transactions with an investment amount of 21.4 billion USD.In terms of regional performance, the Americas absorbed 86.9 billion USD, with the United States contributing 80.8 billion USD; the EMEA region's investment amount decreased from 18 billion USD to 11.3 billion USD, and the Asia-Pacific region fell from 7.1 billion USD to 4.6 billion USD. There were a total of 394 merger and acquisition transactions, totaling 67.9 billion USD, with one 24.3 billion USD acquisition of a global payments company becoming a core driving force.The report pointed out that capital is highly concentrated in mature business models and leading companies that have been validated by the market, cross-border mergers and acquisitions are active, and AI and digital assets continue to be investment hotspots, while sectors such as insurtech and wealth tech have shown significant adjustments or sluggishness.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, in an interview with The Block, responded to ongoing criticisms raised after KPMG U.S. completed its first full financial audit. He stated that some critics are unable to admit that their past judgments about Tether were wrong, and said, "Honestly, I don't care." Ardoino mentioned that Tether has repeatedly proven its resilience.He noted that in 2022, Tether processed $7 billion in redemptions within 48 hours, which was about 10% of its reserves at the time, and there was no pause in redemptions during that period. He believes that many traditional financial institutions would struggle to handle withdrawals of a similar scale in such a short time. He also stated that criticism itself is not a bad thing, as it makes Tether better and stronger. Even if some critics view it as a "villain," as long as Tether can continue to serve its claimed 650 million users who rely on USDT, especially in emerging markets, he does not mind.According to informed sources, Tether, as a private company, will not publicly share audited financial statements. The company plans to conduct a full audit once a year in the future while continuing to release quarterly attestation reports. Overall, the KPMG audit is an important step for Tether to enhance transparency, but controversies surrounding its reserves, disclosure levels, and systemic impact have not completely dissipated.

Digital asset company Tether announced that it has completed a full independent audit conducted by KPMG U.S. on the financial statements of Tether International, S.A. de C.V. as of December 31, 2025. KPMG U.S. issued an unqualified audit opinion.The audit covered transactions, systems, ownership records, valuations, counterparties, and financial statement evidence, and reviewed the balance sheet, income statement, statement of changes in equity, and cash flow statement. KPMG U.S. also physically counted and inspected each gold bar held by Tether. Tether's Chief Financial Officer Simon McWilliams stated that the audited financial statements for 2025 show that its reserve assets exceed liabilities by $6.814 billion. Tether stated that this audit is an important step in fulfilling its long-term commitment to financial transparency.

According to Jinshi reports, KPMG Chief Economist Diane Swonk stated that she expects the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in September. She pointed out that high inflation has persisted for five years, and although this is not entirely the Federal Reserve's responsibility, whether to take action is the Federal Reserve's choice. The price increases have been too high for too long, transitioning from an anomaly to the norm.

According to KPMG's latest survey report involving 2,145 executives from 20 countries, as technology companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and GitHub recently shifted some of their AI services from fixed subscription models to usage-based billing, businesses are facing challenges in cost forecasting and management during the scaling of AI deployment.The report indicates that 29% of corporate executives find it difficult to understand and control operational costs when scaling AI deployment, and one-third of executives believe that insufficient understanding of AI economics hinders the deployment of AI entities. Due to costs exceeding expected value, nearly half (about 49%) of corporate organizations have chosen to delay or readjust their AI deployment plans; meanwhile, low-cost, high-fidelity large models are accelerating their impact on corporate AI strategies.In addition, tech giants are increasing capital expenditures to build AI capacity. Amazon plans to spend about $200 billion on capital expenditures this year and is investing $1 billion in its AWS frontline engineering organization to assist customers in adopting AI entities; Microsoft's total capital expenditure is expected to reach $190 billion this year, with $2.5 billion allocated to the new entity Microsoft Frontier Company. KPMG emphasizes that, in addition to cost pressures, accountability in AI governance, employee engagement rules, and the prevention of system "hallucinations" remain core challenges faced by businesses today.

According to market news, the stablecoin issuer USDT, Tether, has chosen KPMG as its auditing firm and has hired PwC to assist in improving its internal systems.This move is the clearest signal that Tether is moving towards a comprehensive financial statement audit, which will go beyond the monthly reserve attestations currently published by BDO Italia, conducting a thorough review of assets, liabilities, controls, and reporting processes. Previously, Tether announced that it had engaged one of the Big Four accounting firms to conduct an audit of its business, but did not disclose the specific firm at that time.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, the accounting firm KPMG pointed out in a report that stablecoins are becoming one of the most obvious use cases for the recent transformation of cross-border payments. Stablecoins can reduce cross-border settlement times from days to seconds, while lowering transaction costs by up to 99%. Currently, banks process about $150 trillion in funds annually through a slow and expensive correspondent banking network, which ties up significant amounts of money in nostro and vostro accounts. The report noted that pioneers like JPMorgan and PayPal have already shown an increasing demand for blockchain-based payment channels.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, KPMG Chief Economist Diane Swonk stated that the Federal Reserve is trying to lift some restrictions to boost the labor market. However, if this policy is extended into next year, when the Federal Reserve will face major leadership changes, there may be a risk of excessive stimulation, leading to a more harmful self-fulfilling prophecy where consumers and businesses expect inflation to be higher.

ChainCatcher news, according to CryptoNews, KPMG Japan executive Kenji Hoki stated at the Tokyo WebX2025 summit that Japan's Bitcoin ETF may be launched in the spring of 2027.Hoki mentioned that Japanese policymakers might propose lifting the domestic Bitcoin ETF ban in the next tax reform, which is typically submitted at the beginning of each year. This means that the request for a Bitcoin ETF could be made in early 2026, and if approved, Congress might legislate it in March or April 2026, with the relevant law taking effect in the spring of 2027.However, Hoki also noted that if the issue is resolved through a government ordinance amendment rather than a legal amendment, the ban on Bitcoin ETFs could potentially be lifted as early as next year.

ChainCatcher news, KPMG plans to invest $100 million over the next four years to advance its enterprise AI services. The initiative will involve collaboration with Google Cloud, focusing primarily on internal AI projects utilizing Google technology.KPMG is expanding its AI and cloud services to meet client demands, which includes a $2 billion commitment over five years made earlier in July 2023 with Microsoft's cloud products.

ChainCatcher news, Diane Swonk from KPMG stated that the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates in December, but it seems they want to maintain "flexibility" in the future. She mentioned that one of the main challenges the Federal Reserve currently faces is "communication," as this is not a time when they can provide "a lot of forward guidance."

ChainCatcher news, KPMG released the "Fintech Trends" report yesterday, which shows that in the first half of the year, the Asia-Pacific region recorded a total of 438 fintech transactions, raising $3.8 billion. The Asia-Pacific region places greater emphasis on the development and launch of virtual currencies and tokenized real-world assets.Major financial hubs such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan are committed to balancing innovation and regulation, continuing to explore and approve activities that integrate traditional finance with decentralized finance while protecting investors' rights. The Hong Kong government is actively developing cryptocurrency regulations to support cryptocurrency trading and other related activities.In the first half of 2024, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority launched the second phase of the e-HKD pilot program and is attracting cryptocurrency companies through various initiatives to enhance Hong Kong's financial ecosystem, promoting the city to become an international virtual asset center.

ChainCatcher news, the "Big Four" accounting firm KPMG has established a strategic alliance with the crypto accounting software Cryptio to help U.S. crypto companies comply with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). According to the announcement, the KPMG-Cryptio strategic alliance aims to establish control measures within cryptocurrency companies to better account for their crypto assets. Through this collaboration, crypto-related businesses and institutions can use Cryptio's accounting software to fulfill their GAAP accounting and reporting obligations in the U.S.

ChainCatcher news, KPMG stated in a report that many forms of digital currencies, such as Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), tokenized deposits, and stablecoins, are expected to coexist in the financial markets over the next decade. These digital currencies are not a single dominant choice; although their usage may overlap, the report predicts that users will lean towards the most efficient and automated solutions.

ChainCatcher news, according to DL News, Consensys CEO Joe Lubin stated that Consensys aims to attract public investment using crypto-native methods. Consensys is looking for acquisition opportunities.When asked about "Consensys's path to going public," Lubin said, "We have been talking about this for a long time." "There are different ways to go public in our ecosystem," he continued, "you can launch a protocol, you can tokenize the protocol, you can externalize the project."Consensys is working with auditing firm KPMG but declined to provide specific details. Lubin made it clear that Consensys will choose to go public via blockchain rather than listing on Nasdaq or other stock exchanges.

ChainCatcher news, according to a report by Cointelegraph, a survey by KPMG shows that 39% of Canadian institutional investors surveyed indicated that they have invested in crypto assets directly or indirectly in 2023, up from just 31% in 2021. Meanwhile, one-third of institutional investors allocate 10% or more of their portfolios to crypto assets, compared to only one-fifth two years ago.Additionally, half of the surveyed institutional investors have exposure to crypto assets through Canadian ETFs, closed-end trusts, or other regulated products, while 58% of institutional investors have exposure to crypto assets through the stock market (e.g., Galaxy Digital on the Toronto Stock Exchange).

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, KPMG's Canadian branch has partnered with the crypto data platform Chainalysis to help organizations combat crypto-related fraud. As part of this, KPMG has joined Chainalysis's solution provider program to offer solutions for cryptocurrency exchanges, financial institutions, law enforcement agencies, and government bodies, enabling strict monitoring, support, governance, and risk management.As part of this program, KPMG professionals will become Chainalysis Certified Investigators, aimed at assisting their clients in detecting and preventing illegal activities based on cryptocurrency, complying with evolving cryptocurrency regulations, and enhancing existing anti-money laundering compliance.