Tether’s Big‑Four step
Tether just completed its first Big Four audit with KPMG — a huge credibility signal for the largest stablecoin amid regulatory scrutiny. At the same time, crypto’s legal picture stayed murky: Ripple’s CEO warned regulators not to weaponize policy, and a Texas federal court declined to rule on whether non‑custodial crypto software falls under federal securities law, leaving uncertainty in place. (x.com) (en.bloomingbit.io) (banklesstimes.com)
Tether’s own March 24 announcement said the company had “entered a formal engagement with a Big Four accounting firm” to carry out a full independent financial‑statement audit and called the engagement the largest inaugural audit in financial‑markets history. Sources later identified the auditor as KPMG and reported that Tether separately retained PwC to help prepare internal systems and controls ahead of the review. The audit is being framed to cover roughly $184–185 billion of USDT in circulation, a step up from the point‑in‑time monthly attestations Tether has published and had BDO Italia prepare. Market reporting links the timing to a planned U.S. expansion and a potential $15–20 billion fundraising effort — coverage that also notes Tether has pitched a valuation figure in the neighborhood of $500 billion in fundraising discussions. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, speaking March 27, used a Fox Business interview to warn lawmakers against letting crypto policy be “weaponized,” invoked the phrase “another Gary Gensler moment,” and said he now expects the CLARITY Act’s passage to slip toward the end of May. In a separate legal development, Chief Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted the government’s motion to dismiss Michael Lewellen’s pre‑enforcement suit on March 25, 2026, saying Lewellen had not shown a credible, imminent threat of prosecution and dismissing the case without prejudice. The Lewellen litigation had drawn amicus support from a coalition including Paradigm, the DeFi Education Fund, the Blockchain Association, the Crypto Council for Innovation, the Bitcoin Policy Institute and the Digital Chamber — filings that stressed developer exposure under federal money‑transmitter law even as the court declined to resolve the underlying legal question.
