Top Four Global Accounting Firms Decline to Audit Tether, CEO of Tether: Working on Building Relationships

Tether is currently working to establish good relationships in order to obtain audits from one of the Big Four accounting firms.

Big Four Auditors Fear Tether

During an interview with DL News, Paolo Ardoino stated:

Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC are afraid of damaging their reputation and therefore unwilling to work with Tether. None of the Big Four are willing to audit us, but hiring one of them as Tether's auditor remains a "top priority."

He also seemed to criticize the lack of transparency in traditional financial institutions, emphasizing that stablecoin service providers like Tether, Circle, etc., may not be as profitable as traditional finance because the transparency of blockchain makes auditing easier.

However, Tether is still working on building good relationships to obtain an audit from one of the Big Four auditors.

Auditors Don't Need to Take Risks

In the crypto market, facing the collapse of FTX, prolonged hacking attacks, and regulatory pressure, Paolo Ardoino pointed out that it is not easy to become a client of a top accounting firm in such circumstances.

He said:

Do they need to take this risk? If you are one of the Big Four auditors and your clients cover the entire banking industry, why would you risk offending 100,000 customers for a few stablecoin service providers?

Paolo Ardoino also mentioned that some factions in the US Congress are strongly against cryptocurrencies.

Anti-crypto Senator Elizabeth Warren claims that countries are using cryptocurrency to evade sanctions, but is contradicted by community notes.

Proof Reports vs. Audit Reports

From 2014 to 2017, Tether did not publish reserve reports, and since 2022, Tether has relied only on quarterly "proof reports."

There are differences between Proof Reports (Attestations) and Audit Reports.

Proof reports usually cover specific financial information or activities, such as specific transactions or asset accounts provided by customers; audit reports are more comprehensive, covering the financial condition and operations of the entire company, and may further uncover unknown risks, compliance issues, etc.

The media representatives of the Big Four auditors did not respond to DL News' request for comments.