KPMG confirmed on August 17, 2026, that Tether holds around 150 tons of gold and that its reserves exceed liabilities by $6.8 billion. CEO Paolo Ardoino said the audit clears the way for AI tools built for phones in developing markets.
Key Takeaways
- KPMG confirmed Tether holds around 150 tons of gold backing its XAUT token and found reserves exceed liabilities by $6.8 billion.
- Tether posted a $1.5 billion net operating profit for the second quarter of 2026, up from $1.04 billion in the first quarter.
- CEO Paolo Ardoino said Tether now serves over 650 million wallets worldwide, with the heaviest growth in Africa and South America.
- Tether plans basic AI applications for health, finance, and sports built to run on ordinary phones with limited connectivity.
- Ardoino warned that unequal AI access risks turning today’s wage gap into a compounding intelligence gap.
What Happened?
KPMG, the Big Four accounting firm Tether hired to review its holdings, spent weeks verifying gold bars stored inside a secured Swiss vault, Ardoino told Fortune. The audit confirmed the bullion backing Tether Gold is fully accounted for and found the company’s overall reserves exceed its liabilities.
The review targets one of crypto’s oldest disputes: whether Tether’s $183 billion supply of USDT stablecoins sits behind sufficient collateral. KPMG’s engagement to audit Tether’s holdings was first disclosed earlier this year, and the completed audit now gives Tether an independent answer to critics who have questioned its reserve makeup for years.
The audit does not change USDT or Tether Gold’s redemption terms. Existing holders do not need to take any action as a result of the findings, and Tether has not released the full audit report publicly.
Tether Plans AI Applications for Developing Markets as Global Users Top 650M
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) August 17, 2026
According to Fortune, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the company is expanding beyond financial services into technology and infrastructure, with plans to develop AI applications for developing markets.… pic.twitter.com/hgmBmlTCLH
Digital Dollar, Digital Gold
Ardoino used the audit to reframe how Tether describes itself. He told Fortune:
That framing tracks Tether’s user base. The company counts more than 650 million wallets worldwide, concentrated in Africa and South America, where currency instability has pushed people toward dollar and gold-backed alternatives. Tether’s gold token, XAUT, expanded onto BNB Chain earlier this year to widen access to tokenized bullion beyond its original network.
Tether’s core stablecoin business remains the profit engine funding this expansion. The company reported a $1.5 billion net operating profit for the second quarter of 2026, up 44% from $1.04 billion in the first quarter, driven largely by yield on its US Treasury holdings. USDT still dominates the broader stablecoin market by share, the base Tether is now building AI plans on top of.
AI For The Next Billion
Tether’s AI ambitions are not new. The company introduced QVAC Health in December 2025, an on-device platform that runs AI models locally instead of routing data through cloud servers, the company said in its announcement. In March 2026, Tether also backed sleep technology company Eight Sleep at a $1.5 billion valuation, extending its bet on AI-driven health tools.
Ardoino told Fortune the next phase targets everyday verticals: health, finance, and sports, built to run on the basic phones already common among Tether’s user base. He did not detail pricing. The interview suggested a business model built around small monthly payments in USDT or another digital currency, though Tether has not confirmed the specifics.
The Bottom Line
The KPMG audit gives Tether something it has lacked for years: independent, Big Four verification that its reserves cover its liabilities. That removes a recurring point of skepticism and hands Ardoino a credibility platform to position Tether as broader financial and technology infrastructure for emerging markets.
The AI push carries different risks than the reserve question did. Health data handled on-device still triggers regulatory scrutiny in most jurisdictions, and Tether’s historically guarded disclosure practices give outside observers little to evaluate beyond company statements. Ardoino’s own warning, that unequal AI access could compound existing wage gaps into a broader intelligence gap, applies as much to Tether’s own rollout as to the industry it describes.
