Mazars quits work with crypto firms including Binance

Paris-based global auditor Mazars has suspended all of its work with cryptocurrency firms, it was reported on Friday, as the fallout from the collapse of FTX continued.

According to Bloomberg, Mazars had been working with crypto giant Binance as well as other exchanges on work including proof-of-reserves statements.

Earlier in December, it found in its latest proof-of-reserves assessment that Binance’s bitcoin reserves were over-collateralised, although as of Friday morning, the link to the report no longer works on Mazars’ website.

“Mazars has indicated that they will temporarily pause their work with all of their crypto clients globally, which include Crypto.com, KuCoin, and Binance,” a spokesperson for Binance said in a statement quoted by CoinDesk.

“Unfortunately, this means that we will not be able to work with Mazars for the moment.”

Values for the house coins of Binance, Crypto.com and KuCoin all lost value in the wake of the news, with CoinDesk reporting a 5% fall for Binance Coin in the last 24 hours, while Crypto.com’s CRO was down 3.9% and the KuCoin token was 2.5% weaker.

Large cryptocurrency exchanges faced pressure from investors and customers to prove their reserves after the one-behemoth FTX went bankrupt last month.

Its controversial chief executive officer Sam Bankman-Fried was taken into custody in the Bahamas this week, on charges laid by the United States including conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud.

Mazars had not commented on its exit from crypto exchange audits as of Friday afternoon.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.