Accounting firm Mazars halts proof-of-stock audits for crypto-currency companies, Binance audit removed from the web

Accounting firm Mazars Group has stopped performing proof-of-reserve (POR) audits for crypto-currency exchanges, and the recently released Binance POR has been removed from the web. Mazars was performing a number of ROP audits for crypto-currency exchanges like Binance, Crypto.com and Kucoin after FTX collapsed last month.

Mazars Group halts audits of crypto-currency companies, Binance’s ROP removed from the web.

Reports detailed on December 16, 2022, that the accounting firm Mazars Group has stopped performing ROP audits for crypto-currency exchanges. On Friday, a Binance spokesperson told CNBC that “Mazars has indicated that they will temporarily halt their work with all of their crypto clients globally, which includes Crypto.com, Kucoin and Binance.” The spokesperson added that “this means we will not be able to work with Mazars at this time.“

I’m sorry but no. This is not PoR. This is either ignorance or intentional misrepresentation.

The merkle tree is just hand wavey bullshit without an auditor to make sure you didn’t include accounts with negative balances. The statement of assets is pointless without liabilities. https://t.co/b5KSr2XKLB

– Jesse Powell (@jespow) November 25, 2022

The news follows the recent review of Jesse Powell, of Kraken, on November 25, and when he denounced Binance’s POR audited by Mazars on December 8. Binance’s ROP has been in the spotlight for some time and the company has faced a lot of speculation, rumors and doubts. In addition, Binance saw a significant amount of withdrawals on December 13, as over $3 billion in funds were taken off the exchange.

ok, I’ll give you a hint. This is just the easy stuff that says this OBVIOUSLY is not a traditional Proof of Reserves, and should immediately have had actual journalists digging.

Why use collateral value? Why negative balances included? No wallet signing? Who issues BTCB and BBTC? pic.twitter.com/F9u4XJ5WSi

– Jesse Powell (@jespow) December 8, 2022

Although Mazars does not perform ROP audits for crypto-currency exchanges, for the time being, the company has apparently removed Binance’s ROP from the internet. The page now states that the “server cannot be located” when someone tries to visit the Binance audit published by Mazars. At the time of writing, the Crypto.com audit is still on the web and has not been removed.

The Mazars ROP Audit written for the crypto-currency exchange Kucoin is still online on the web as well. The difference between the Crypto.com and Kucoin ROP audits, compared to the Binance ROP audit, is that the Crypto.com and Kucoin documents are hosted on their own websites. The Binance audit, conducted on November 22, 2022, at Bitcoin block level 764,327, was hosted solely on the Mazars website. At the time of writing, Mazars Group has not commented on the situation or explained why it has stopped performing POR audits for crypto-currency companies.