Tether Swaps Accounting Firms, Says It Will Publish Monthly Attestation on Stablecoin Backing

Stablecoin issuer Tether tapped BDO Italia to take over its regular attestation reports and said it plans to publish them every month rather than once a quarter.

The firm, a member of the Binder Dijker Otte global network of accounting and consulting firms, will publish the attestations and assurance reports that roughly detail the assets that make up the $67 billion USDT stablecoin's reserves, Tether said Thursday.

Stablecoin issuers publish attestations and assurance reports to assure the broader crypto market that their coins are backed by real assets. Tether began publishing these reports after settling an inquiry with the New York Attorney General's office, when the law enforcement entity claimed that, for a time, USDT was not fully backed.

"The decision to work with the BDO organization represents [Tether's] promise to deliver considerable transparency for those holding Tether tokens, providing updates about issued tokens and reserves on a daily basis, supplemented by monthly assurance opinions," the company said in a press release.

The move is "the next step" toward issuing an audit, something Tether executives have promised for months, according to the release.

"The utility of Tether has grown beyond being just a tool for quickly moving in and out of trading positions, and therefore it is mission-critical for us to scale alongside the peer-to-peer and payments markets," Chief Technical Officer Paolo Ardoino said in a statement.

Moore Cayman previously provided Tether's assurance reports (which later began operating under the name MHA Cayman).