Mazars Group, an accounting firm, has ceased to provide proof of reserve (POR) audits for crypto exchanges. Binance audit has been taken down from the web. Mazars had conducted a series of POR audits for cryptocurrency companies such as Binance, Crypto.com and Kucoin in the wake of the FTX collapse last month.
Mazars Group Halts Verification of Crypto Companies, Binance Audit Vanishes From Web
On December 16th, a report from Detailed revealed that the accounting firm Mazars Group has stopped providing POR auditing services for cryptocurrency companies. When asked about it, a spokesperson from Binance told CNBC on Friday that “Mazars has indicated that it will temporarily halt work with all of its crypto clients globally, which include Crypto.com, Kucoin, and Binance.” The spokesperson added that “this means we will not be able to work with Mazars at the moment.”
The news comes after Jesse Powell, Kraken executive, expressed his criticism on November 25 and denounced Binance’s POR audit by Mazars on December 8. Demand for POR audits has been high for some time, as the exchange is surrounded by speculation, rumors, FUD, and doubts. Additionally, Binance experienced a large-scale withdrawal on December 13, where more than $3B was taken from the exchange.
At the moment, Mazars is not providing POR audits for crypto companies. However, Binance’s audit is still accessible on the web, although the page states “server cannot be located” when someone tries to visit it. At the time this article was written, Crypto.com audit website was still available and had not been removed yet. The Kucoin POR audit can also be found online, and it differs from the Binance POR audit in that it examines the organization’s financial records. Crypto.com documents are hosted on their website, while the Binance audit, completed on November 22, 2022, with a Bitcoin block height of 764,327, was only hosted on the Mazars website. So far, Mazars has not commented on the matter or explained why it stopped performing POR audits for crypto firms.
What do you think about Mazars stopping to provide audits for crypto companies and seemingly removing a recent POR audit of Binance from the web? Let us know your thoughts about this topic in the comments below.
