Some US auditors say FTX's collapse has led them to designate crypto clients as “high risk”, resulting in longer audits, higher fees, or dropping clients
Stephen Foley / Financial Times : Tweets: @jaypinho , @mayazi , @ian_fraser , and @bitfinexed Tweets: Jay Pinho / @jaypinho : Reminder: on July 8th @paoloardoino claimed Tether hadn't completed its long-promised audit because the Big 4 auditors were “kind of afraid of the cryptocurrency market:” https://twitter.com/.... Yesterday's @stephenfoley piece makes clear this is false: https://www.ft.com/... https://twitter.com/... @mayazi : Talk about the consequences of adverse effect. The difficulty & risk of auditing crypto companies means the reputable big firms are opting out of taking on crypto companies, leaving crypto having to use sketchier & smaller firms. We're so back to '18 https://giftarticle.ft.com/... Ian Fraser / @ian_fraser : Post-FTX, nervous auditors wonder if thy ought to have been more sceptical of crypto clients' figures. https://www.ft.com/... @bitfinexed : Introducing, the auditor for FTX and Binance. I'm sure it's fine. https://www.ft.com/... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The audit squeeze on crypto predates the exchange's failure: Tether has promised a full audit since at least 2017 without delivering one, and the SEC and CFTC were already probing FTX.com's handling of customer funds before it imploded. What the Financial Times reporting adds is the demand-side consequence — US auditors now formally classify crypto clients as high risk, translating into longer engagements, higher fees, or outright client exits.
First-order effects
- Crypto companies still holding an auditor face longer engagements and higher fees as their engagements get reclassified as high-risk work; those without one lose the attestation they need for banking and investor diligence.
Second-order effects
- Binance's disclosure that Deloitte, E&Y, KPMG, and PwC are 'currently unwilling' to audit private crypto companies after Mazars' exit shows the retrenchment spreading from individual clients to the whole service category, leaving smaller firms to absorb work the majors won't take.
Third-order effects
- Audit refusal compounds the parallel retreat by US banks from crypto clients, so exchanges face simultaneous chokepoints on both assurance and banking access — pushing the industry toward either attestations-lite substitutes or regulatory mandates forcing a single standard of proof.
The trend: FTX's collapse is accelerating the professional-services decoupling from crypto, with auditors joining banks in repricing or exiting exposure to the sector.