Mazars Removed Binance “Audit” Results From Website, Paused Work For Crypto Clients
Auditing firm Mazars seems to have deleted the page from its website that displayed the results of its Agreed-Upon Procedures engagement conducted for Binance.
Binance has tapped auditing firm Mazars to release a report on the exchange’s BTC reserves, confirming what the firm released earlier that it has 101% reserve ratio, enough to cover customer balances on the platform.
The auditing firm said that it performed an Agreed-Upon Procedures engagement in accordance with the International Standard on Related Services (ISRS) 4400 (Revised). Under item 6, however, the rules of procedure specified that such engagement is “not an audit, review, or other assurance engagement.” The same disclaimer is also expressed by Mazars in its report.
“This AUP engagement is not an assurance engagement. Accordingly, we do not express an opinion or an assurance conclusion. Had we performed additional procedures, other matters might have come to our attention that would have been reported,” the firm said.
This development comes after Binance announced that Mazars has paused all work for crypto clients.
“Mazars has indicated that they will temporarily pause their work with all of their crypto clients globally, which include Crypto.com, KuCoin, and Binance. Unfortunately, this means that we will not be able to work with Mazars for the moment,” a Binance spokesperson said.
While it’s not a direct comment, Zhao tweeted that “blockchains are public… records” and thus, the “most auditable ledger.”
Following the collapse of FTX, a once dominant exchange that went bankrupt last month, crypto exchanges were under pressure to provide proof of reserves, with former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried now in custody in the Bahamas on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, among other things.
Zhao has also recently stated that customers are more likely to lose cryptocurrency by storing it in a cold wallet rather than storing it on a centralized exchange.
READ: After Suggesting Self-Custody, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao Now Believes 99% Will Fail At It
“For most people, for 99% of people today, asking them to hold crypto on their own, they will end up losing it,” he said in a Twitter Space on Wednesday.
Not too long ago, during the height of the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX’s implosion, the Binance chief encouraged crypto investors to self-custody their own digital assets, adding that it “is a fundamental human right.”
Both Binance and Mazars reports show that the crypto exchange has its users collectively holding 575,742.4228 BTC, which is around $9.7 billion at today’s exchange rate.
Information for this briefing was found via CoinDesk and the sources mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to this organization. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
