Mazars, the auditors for crypto exchange Binance, have removed their proof-of-reserves audits from the company’s website.
The official website for Mazars shows that Mazars Veritas, a company section dedicated to cryptocurrency exchange audits, has been discontinued. The tool was created for transparency in the digital assets sector and used the Silver Sixpence Merkle Tree Generating tool to complement Proof-of-Reserve reports.
Recently, Bloomberg stated that Mazars stopped doing proof-of-reserve audits for cryptocurrency companies in December. Other auditing firms, such as FTX’s auditor Armanino, have also reportedly stopped working with crypto exchanges like OKX and Gate.io.
As the auditing firm of former United States President Donald Trump’s company, Mazars has a well-established reputation. The firm was recently appointed as an official auditor for Binance’s proof-of-reserve updates.
Exchange rivals, including KuCoin and Crypto.com, have followed Binance’s lead in working with Mazars as part of their reserve reports.
The CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, quickly responded to the news on Twitter with a retweet from a random commenter. Their tweet read, “Making a statement on why an auditing company decided to quit working with crypto? Ask them lol.”
CZ remarked that blockchains are transparent by default in a subsequent tweet, stating:
“Blockchains are public and uneditable records, so it’s the most auditable ledger.”