Mazars suspended the service of crypto companies

The audit firm Mazars Group suspended work with all clients from the crypto industry after checking Binance's bitcoin reserves. This is reported by Bloomberg with reference to the exchange.

"Mazars has made it clear that it temporarily stops servicing all crypto clients, including Crypto.com , KuCoin and Binance. Unfortunately, this means that at the moment we cannot work with the company," said the representative of the platform.

Earlier, experts criticized the Mazars report on Binance verification published in early December. It concerned the volume of user deposits in bitcoin and the availability of appropriate reserves from the platform.

The data confirmed by the auditor gave the exchange a reason to declare the security of obligations by 101%.

However, experts noted that the actual snapshot did not prove the security of clients' assets. Mazars' work was not a full-fledged audit and did not confirm, for example, the effectiveness of Binance's internal control systems, they believe.

John Reed Stark, President of John Reed Stark Consulting, called the results of the audit "alarming signals."

Mazars also published a report on the reserves of the cryptocurrency platform Crypto.com and announced a similar check of the KuCoin exchange.

According to Forbes, another auditing firm — Armanino — also stops working with crypto companies. She is being pressured by clients unrelated to the digital asset industry. They are concerned about reputational risks that may cast doubt on their audit, the sources of the publication said.

Armanino has been working with crypto companies since 2014, but, according to insiders, it may close the corresponding division.

"Our industry office serves companies providing financial services for digital assets, miners and stake holders, funds, token projects and companies "curious about cryptocurrencies" in various ways to meet the unique needs of the industry," the service's webpage says.

After the collapse of FTX in November 2022, a class action lawsuit was filed against the firm. In 2021, Armanino conducted an audit of the American branch of the exchange and found no violations.

Binance, amid the collapse of FTX, disclosed information about its cryptocurrency reserves. The company also launched the Proof-of-Reserves feature, which allows users to verify that their bitcoins are secured with assets on the platform.

Recall that CryptoQuant analysts confirmed the accuracy of the data provided in the Mazars report on checking Binance reserves.