Tether's new compliant USD stablecoin, USAT, recently received its first-ever verification of its reserves from Deloitte, one of the Big Four accounting firms. This breaks the deadlock where large accounting firms previously refused to provide services to cryptocurrency companies due to reputational risks. The report verifies that the issuer, Anchorage Digital Bank, holds $17.6 million in reserve assets to back 17.5 million USAT in circulation. This not only marks Tether's official return to the US market since 2018 but also reflects the stablecoin industry's move towards stricter compliance standards driven by new US regulations.
Tether takes a key step towards stablecoin compliance.
For years, Tether, the world's largest stablecoin issuer, has stated that major accounting firms have been unwilling to provide auditing services. Now, the company's first reserve report prepared to comply with new U.S. regulations for its USAT stablecoin has been approved by one of the Big Four accounting firms, Deloitte.
This demonstrates that traditional financial auditing firms are gradually accepting digital assets operating within a clear regulatory framework. For Tether, this also represents a strategic move to re-enter the US market through compliant means.
USAT Reserves Data and Market Size Analysis
According to a report by Anchorage Digital Bank, the current circulating 17.5 million USAT coins are backed by $17.6 million in reserve assets, indicating a healthy excess reserve ratio. From a macro market perspective, the total global market capitalization of stablecoins has exceeded $300 billion, with Tether's flagship product USDT accounting for approximately 60% of the market share, reaching a scale of $184 billion. This massive amount of capital highlights the central role of stablecoins in cross-border payments and digital asset transactions, while also drawing close attention from regulatory agencies to the quality of their assets.
USAT's reserves consist of cash and reverse repos secured by U.S. Treasury bonds, ensuring rapid liquidity in the face of extreme market stress to meet potential large-scale redemption demands, and are held independently in segregated trust accounts.
Differences between assurance and full audit
While Deloitte's involvement boosted market confidence, it's crucial to clarify that "third-party verification" is not equivalent to a "comprehensive financial audit." Verification only involves checking a snapshot of assets at a specific point in time, not a deep audit of the company's overall books. Tether was previously penalized in 2021 for mislabeling its reserves, so the market remains cautious about whether stablecoins have sufficient liquidity to handle large-scale redemptions under extreme pressure. Currently, USDT's reserve verification is still handled by BDO.
New regulations drive industry oversight upgrades
The Genius Act, passed by the U.S. Congress last year, sets clear regulations for the issuance and reserve assets of stablecoins. This act restricts the types of stablecoin reserve assets to ensure their low risk and high liquidity, and requires tokens with a certain circulating supply to be subject to federal-level regulation. This means that issuers will face higher compliance costs in the future. The fact that USAT accepted an audit by Deloitte is a concrete example of cryptocurrency companies adapting to this emerging regulatory environment, and it is expected to drive the entire industry towards greater transparency.
This article, titled "Tether's USAT Stablecoin Finally Receives Certification from the Big Four Accounting Firm Deloitte," first appeared on ABMedia, a ABMedia .
