Binance says Mazars, the auditing firm that worked on proof-of-reserves reports for Binance, Crypto.com, and others, has paused work for all crypto clients
Mazars has deleted Binance's proof-of-reserves assessment, which found its bitcoin reserves were overcollateralized.
Binance loses a public proof-of-reserves assessment that supported its claim of overcollateralized bitcoin reserves, while Crypto.com and other Mazars crypto clients lose the firm's ongoing work.
The deletion leaves users without the specific Mazars report they could consult, rather than merely raising questions about its scope.
Second-order effects
Other crypto platforms seeking third-party reserve verification face a more constrained auditor market: Binance later said Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC were unwilling to audit private crypto companies.
Proof-of-reserves disclosures become less effective as a trust signal when the firms producing them withdraw or when the reports do not cover a platform's full obligations.
Third-order effects
If major audit firms continue to avoid private crypto engagements, exchanges will face a persistent credibility gap between self-published reserve data and the fuller independent assurance users seek.
The episode points toward scrutiny of whether proof-of-reserves attestations can substitute for broader audits, especially when reports cover only selected assets and liabilities.
The trend: Crypto platforms are discovering that reserve attestations cannot close the legitimacy gap without auditors willing to stand behind broader, durable verification.
Mazars' official website shows they fully discontinued their “https://veritas.mazars.com/” website, dedicated to Crypto audits. This comes after Bloomberg reports that Mazars stopped doing Proof of Reserves for Crypto companies. Archive: https://web.archive.org/...
While people will speculate about the reason for this change, it is likely Mazars realized the backlash associated with doing shallow Proof of Reserves for Crypto companies is far worse than what they could gain from it. Associating your business with Crypto is always dangerous. …
Wonder if this is why Mazars seems to have removed Binance's proof of reserves report from the web. This (linked in all the news articles) is now broken: https://veritas.mazars.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Auditing firm Mazars temporarily suspends crypto audit work. According to Coindesk, it also deleted proof of reserve report link from its website for Binance, Cryptodotcom and Kucoin. What's going on there? https://www.coindesk.com/...
Mazars audited Binance,Kucoin, Crypto .com and few other major companies Fyi Mazars, the accounting firm did work with Trump's also and then cut ties with him once he was getting investigated for tax fraud 😅 https://twitter.com/...
Getting into bed with the wrong client is the reason why the auditing industry's Big Five became the Big Four 20 years ago and stayed that way https://twitter.com/...
[DB] For Context, This Was Out ~15 Mins Ago Mazars Has Paused Work for All Crypto Clients Globally, According to Binance, Which Was a Customer of the Auditing Firm: BBG