Tether is currently making efforts to establish good relationships in order to obtain audits from one of the big four accounting firms.
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Big Four Auditors Afraid of Tether
Audit Firms Don’t Need to Take Risks
Attestation Reports vs. Audit Reports
Big Four Auditors Afraid of Tether
During an interview with DL News, Paolo Ardoino stated that Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers are afraid to work with Tether due to concerns about reputation. None of the big four accounting firms are willing to audit us. However, hiring one of these companies as Tether’s auditing firm remains a “top priority.”
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Ardoino also seemed to criticize the opacity of traditional financial institutions, emphasizing that stablecoin service providers such as Tether and Circle may not be as profitable as traditional finance because the transparency of blockchain makes audits easier.
But Tether is currently making efforts to establish good relationships in order to obtain audits from one of the big four accounting firms.
Audit Firms Don’t Need to Take Risks
With the collapse of FTX, prolonged hacker attacks, and regulatory pressures in the crypto market, Paolo Ardoino pointed out that it is not easy to become a client of a top accounting firm in such circumstances.
He stated:
“Do they need to take this risk? If you are one of the big four accounting firms and your clients cover the entire banking industry, why would you risk offending 100,000 customers for a few stablecoin service providers?”
Ardoino also mentioned that some factions in the US Congress are strongly opposed to cryptocurrencies.
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Anti-crypto Congresswoman Elizabeth Warren claims that countries are using cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions, which is contradicted by community notes.
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Attestation Reports vs. Audit Reports
From 2014 to 2017, Tether did not release reserve reports, and since 2022, Tether has relied only on quarterly “attestation reports.”
There is a difference between attestation reports and audit reports.
Attestation reports usually cover specific financial information or activities, such as specific transactions or asset accounts provided by clients. Audit reports, on the other hand, are more comprehensive, covering the financial condition and operations of the entire company, and may further identify unknown risks and compliance issues.
The media representatives of the big four accounting firms did not respond to DL News’ request for comments.
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Further Reading
Tether Expands Its Territory, Launching Decentralized Infrastructure with Four Initiatives
Cantor Fitzgerald, Tether’s Custodian, Stands for Stablecoins: Beneficial for the US Economy