Crypto glossary
Attestation report
An attestation report is an accountant's statement confirming that an issuer's reserves matched its liabilities on a specific date, without a full audit.
Stablecoin issuers and some exchanges hire accounting firms to examine their reserves and publish the result. In an attestation, the firm checks a management statement, such as "reserves exceeded tokens in circulation on 31 March", against bank confirmations, custodian records and on-chain supply, and gives an opinion on whether that statement is fairly presented at that moment.
These reports are the main public evidence that tokens like USDT or USDC are backed, and they are watched closely after every market shock. Regulators increasingly require them on a fixed schedule: MiCA and the US GENIUS Act both set periodic reporting duties for stablecoin issuers, and investors compare reports to see how reserve composition changes over time.
An attestation is narrower than an audit. It covers one date, so assets could be borrowed briefly to look good; it usually ignores internal controls; and it says little about liabilities not shown in the statement. Its value depends on the firm's independence and on what management chose to put in scope, which is why readers check the exact wording and date.
Example
Weeks after the end of each month, a stablecoin issuer publishes a PDF from an accounting firm stating that its reserves exceeded the tokens in circulation at 23:59 on the last day of that month.