Tether under pressure: USDT in Europe, audit questions, and the fight for trust

​Despite posting record profits and continuing to expand its business, Tether is increasingly finding itself at the center of debates over regulation, transparency, and corporate valuation. Recent developments suggest that as the company has grown into one of the crypto industry's largest players, the challenges it faces have evolved as well.

Over the past few months, several seemingly unrelated events have unfolded around Tether.

As Cointelegraph reported, USDT continues to face restrictions across Europe following the implementation of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. At the same time, the company's former chief investment officer is seeking a buyer for part of his stake, while Tether is preparing to undergo its first full financial audit by a Big Four accounting firm.

Meanwhile, the company continues to report strong financial results and expand its investments far beyond the stablecoin market.

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Together, these developments paint an unusual picture. Just a few years ago, the main questions surrounding Tether focused on whether USDT was fully backed by reserves. Today, the company faces a different set of challenges.

As its business expands, Tether must adapt to the demands of regulated markets, the expectations of institutional investors, and increasingly rigorous transparency standards. So far, however, its financial performance has shown little sign of weakening.

Europe becomes USDT's toughest market

Since MiCA took effect, cryptocurrency platforms operating within the European Union have gradually begun restricting services involving stablecoins whose issuers have not obtained the required authorization.

As a result, several major trading platforms have already removed USDT from trading pairs available to European users or announced plans to discontinue support for the token.

One of the latest examples is Revolut, which said it would gradually phase out USDT services across the European Economic Area (EEA). Earlier, several cryptocurrency exchanges operating under European licenses introduced similar measures.

That does not amount to a ban on USDT itself. The restrictions apply primarily to the regulated European market, while the token remains the largest source of U.S. dollar liquidity on crypto trading platforms across most other regions.

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Even so, the situation illustrates that Tether's future can no longer be viewed solely through the lens of the cryptocurrency industry. The company now has to navigate the regulatory requirements of individual jurisdictions, even when they affect only part of its global user base.

Transparency and valuation emerge as new challenges

Where discussions once centered almost entirely on the composition of USDT's reserves, attention is increasingly turning to corporate transparency and the company's valuation.

In late 2025, S&P Global lowered its assessment of USDT's ability to maintain its peg to the U.S. dollar, citing ongoing concerns over disclosures and the structure of its reserves. Tether rejected the assessment, arguing that the agency's methodology failed to reflect the stablecoin's actual resilience.

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Against that backdrop, the company took a step the market had anticipated for years.

In the spring of 2026, Tether announced that it had begun its first full financial statement audit with the participation of a Big Four accounting firm. Financial Times later reported that KPMG is conducting the audit, while PwC is helping the company prepare its internal controls and financial reporting processes for the review.

Despite that progress, the audit has not yet been completed. As a result, Tether continues to publish quarterly reserve attestations rather than a full independent audit opinion.

Another development came after CoinDesk reported that former Chief Investment Officer Richard Heathcote is seeking a buyer for part of his stake in the company. The move does not, by itself, indicate problems with the business. It has, however, renewed market interest in the valuation of one of the cryptocurrency industry's most profitable—and most closely held — companies.

Tether's empire remains firmly intact

The company remains the world's most profitable stablecoin issuer and continues to expand the reserves backing USDT.

For the first quarter of 2026, Tether reported more than $1 billion in net profit, while its excess reserve buffer reached a record $8.23 billion. A substantial share of those reserves remains invested in U.S. Treasury securities, allowing the company to generate stable income even without accelerating USDT issuance.

At the same time, Tether is steadily evolving beyond its role as a stablecoin issuer.

Over the past several years, it has significantly broadened its investment strategy, deploying capital across artificial intelligence, Bitcoin mining, energy, telecommunications, payment infrastructure, and robotics. One of its largest recent investments was participation in NEURA Robotics' funding round, valued at up to $1.4 billion.

The diversification illustrates that Tether's management is preparing for a future in which long-term growth depends on far more than the circulation of USDT alone. Rather than relying exclusively on stablecoin issuance, the company is using profits generated from its reserves to build a broader technology ecosystem.

Do Tether's challenges reflect its maturity?

Many of the questions now surrounding the company are more typical of large financial institutions than cryptocurrency firms.

Regulatory pressure in Europe, expectations of a comprehensive independent audit, debates over the company's valuation, and growing institutional interest all suggest that Tether is entering a new stage of its development—one in which its activities inevitably attract closer scrutiny from regulators and the broader financial community.

That does not mean every outstanding question has been answered.

On the contrary, the coming years will determine whether Tether can successfully adapt to stricter regulatory expectations while maintaining its leadership in the stablecoin market.

What is already clear, however, is that the company's current challenges differ fundamentally from those it faced only a few years ago. Back then, Tether had to convince the market that its business model was viable. Today, the question is whether it can meet the standards increasingly expected of the world's largest financial institutions.