What the Tether audit means for the crypto industry

In news that will shock anyone who’s been involved in the crypto industry for any significant amount of time, Tether announced last week that it had finally received the audit it had been promising for almost a decade.

While traders celebrated and critics scoffed, the audit, which was certainly a step in the right direction, doesn’t put all the questions involving Tether to bed.

The good, the bad, and the unanswered

First of all, it’s important to recognize that an audit of any kind involving Tether is a notch above the quarterly reserve reports they’ve been provided through BDO Italia.

Think of reserve reports as little more than single snapshots into a company’s financials, while an audit would be more akin to a video, recording everything for more than a moment.

It’s also worth pointing out that the audit was carried out by KPMG, which along with Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Ernst & Young, is one of the so-called “Big Four” accounting firms.

Tether received its audit from KPMG’s US arm, the firm’s most esteemed wing.

Of course, the Big Four was once the “Big Eight,” proving that, despite these entities having stronger reputations than their lesser known competitors, they’re still prone to making mistakes and occasionally going bankrupt as a result.