Binance Hires UK-Based Accounting Firm Grant Thornton to Advise on Audits

Binance has hired U.K.-based Grant Thornton’s Singapore devision to advise on accounting and tax matters, it announced Wednesday.

The crypto exchange previously worked with auditing firm Mazars to produce a proof-of-reserves report for crypto clients, however, Mazars in December 2022 said it had paused work with Binance and other crypto clients amid concerns over the public’s misunderstanding of those reports.

Grant Thornton, which previously worked with stablecoin issuer Circle, will help Binance navigate matters related to technical accounting, financial reporting, audit preparedness and tax matters, a Binance spokesperson said.

After the collapse of former crypto exchange FTX, the crypto industry increasingly demanded exchanges provide regular proof-of-reserves to ensure that they indeed had the assets that they claimed to hold.

But proof-of-reserves only shows a snapshot of an exchange’s balance sheet at a given time, leaving possible loopholes for companies, which Mazars claimed to be the reason behind it pausing its work on those reports. Clients are now asking crypto exchanges to provide real financial audits.

According to Binance, Grant Thornton will help the exchange to prepare for such an audit, but will not act as the exchange’s auditor.