'Honestly, I don't care': Tether CEO dismisses critics following first KPMG audit

Quick Take

• Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino dismissed continued criticism following KPMG U.S.'s audit, saying some critics cannot admit they were wrong.
• A source with direct knowledge told The Block that Tether does not publicly share its audited statements because it is a private company.
• Tether plans to conduct full audits annually while continuing quarterly attestations.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino brushed off continued criticism of the stablecoin issuer following its first full financial audit, saying some critics are unable to admit that they were wrong about the company.

"Honestly, I don't care," Ardoino said in an exclusive interview with The Block's The Starting Block show on Friday. "We proved ourselves many times."

Ardoino said Tether (USDT) had already shown it could handle large redemptions. In 2022, the company redeemed $7 billion in 48 hours, or about 10% of its reserves at the time, without stopping redemptions, he noted.

He said many traditional financial institutions would struggle to handle withdrawals of that size in such a short period.

"I'm happy to get the criticism because it makes us better, makes us stronger," he said.

He added that he was comfortable being viewed as a "villain" by some critics if Tether could continue serving the 650 million users the company claims rely on USDT, particularly in emerging markets.

"There is no amount of criticism that will discourage us or will hijack ourselves from our journey and our mission," he said.

Criticism of Tether's first audit

Tether announced Thursday that KPMG U.S. issued an "unqualified opinion," also called a clean opinion, on the 2025 financial statements of Tether International, S.A. de C.V. Ardoino at the time told The Block, "Tether International is the issuer of the USDT stablecoin" when asked whether the audit covered all the financials of Tether's main entity.

Still, some people raised concerns that it is an audit of one subsidiary or operating company, not the ultimate parent's audit or a full consolidated group view. When asked in a followup question on Friday if Tether International is the issuer or an issuer of USDT, Ardoino told The Block: "TIL [Tether International] is the only entity issuing USDT. To be clear."

Another major concern raised by some people is that Tether has not publicly released the audited financial statements or KPMG's full report.

A source with direct knowledge of the matter told The Block that Tether does not publish the documents because it is a private company, adding that many privately held firms follow the same approach. The source, for example, pointed to Bloomberg as another private company that does not publicly share audited financial statements.

Tether provides the statements to regulators and banks upon request, the source said.

There was also one concern that while KPMG issued the unqualified opinion, it could have still flagged some issues. The source described it as a clean audit and the highest available audit outcome without reservations, exceptions, caveats or emphasis of matter.

Why the audit took years

Ardoino said the delay in completing a full audit did not stem from the complexity of Tether International's balance sheet.

"The balance sheet is not complex," Ardoino said in the podcast. "So we have on one side the liabilities [that] are the tokens that are issued, on the other side [we] have all the reserves."

He also described Tether as highly risk-averse, with thorough recordkeeping and management processes.

Instead, Ardoino blamed the previous "antagonistic" U.S. administration's stance toward digital assets for making major accounting firms reluctant to work with crypto companies. He pointed to public criticism of Tether from Senator Elizabeth Warren as contributing to uncertainty among auditing firms.

Ardoino said the current administration's more supportive approach toward digital assets allowed Tether to resume discussions with several Big Four firms before ultimately selecting KPMG U.S.

The audited statements showed that Tether's reserves exceeded its liabilities by $6.8 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025. Ardoino said Tether will undergo a full financial audit every year while continuing to publish quarterly reserve attestations.

Tether's fundraising reports and more

Ardoino said in the podcast Tether never formally announced a private fundraising process and did not say whether investor discussions had ended. He said interest in Tether shares remains "huge," but the profitable company does not need outside capital and would only consider mission-aligned investors. He added that remaining private allows Tether to pursue long-term projects such as its QVAC AI platform without short-term earnings pressure.

Ardoino also said Tether is interested in funding efforts that use advanced AI models to identify vulnerabilities in Bitcoin-related open-source software following the recent ColdCard incident. He said that software bugs currently pose a more immediate threat than quantum computing, which Bitcoin could address through a quantum-resistant signature scheme.

"What happened to CoinKite and ColdCard woke up a lot of people to the real dangers in this world," he said.