Mazars and Armanino have suspended the practice of providing services to crypto-industry platform. Crypto-Upvotes expert review

Auditing firms have begun to refuse to work with companies in the cryptocurrency industry. For example, Mazars, which recently audited Binance reserves, has suspended its audits of cryptocurrency companies. The firm Armanino, which worked with FTX, is also discontinuing its crypto audit practice and turning away clients.

Mazars Group, the French accounting firm that Binance, KuCoin, Crypto.com and other major industry players turned to to verify their reserve assets, stopped all work with cryptocurrencies. That’s because markets don’t trust its “reserve proof”.

A Mazars official said the company would make a statement in due course and declined to comment further. The website where Mazars reports to cryptocurrencies is currently down.

Another auditing company, Armanino, which has been working in the crypto industry since 2014, is also discontinuing its crypto-audit practice. And is giving up on clients, Forbes writes, citing sources familiar with the matter. According to their information, the firm’s cryptocurrency division may be winding down under pressure from Armanino’s non-cryptocurrency clients. These clients are concerned that the reputational risk to the firm would cast doubt on their audits.

Armanino, which had previously inspected OKX and Gate exchanges, was named a defendant in a collective lawsuit in November 2022. For failing to find irregularities at FTX.US after auditing the exchange last year. Collective action was filed by Stephen Pierce, an FTX customer who he claims lost $20,000.

Many accounting firms are afraid to work with cryptocurrency companies. Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s CEO, said this in an interview with CNBC on Thursday. When asked why Binance has not engaged an auditor from the “big four” (PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG). He replied that such firms “don’t even know how to audit crypto exchanges.”

The Mazars audit report on Binance’s reserves, published on December 7, drew criticism and sowed some panic in the cryptocurrency community. Customers of the exchange started withdrawing funds and the value of the BNB token started falling. Changpeng Zhao warned employees that a difficult period was coming. And urged to ignore the rumors and assured that the exchange “will survive any crypto winter.”

Coca-Cola to issue 10K digital tokens from Piece of Magic series will be created based on “heat maps” of tournament matches. Crypto-Upvotes expert review

Coca-Cola, in cooperation with cryptoplatform Crypto.com, will release an NFT collection in honor of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The NFT series, called Piece of Magic, will consist of 10,000 items. Which will be created based on “heat maps” of the tournament matches, according to announcement.

Author NFT is an artist known under the pseudonym GMUNK. He has previously contributed to films such as Tron: Legacy and Oblivion. NFT tokens of collection are generated by tracking attacks, jerks, goals, and other interesting moments during championship matches. According to artist, these NFTs will “capture the spirit of football and depict a visual story unique to each match”.

Items in the collection will only be available to users of Crypto. com NFT marketplace. To gain access to the tokens, one must also register on the Coca-Cola Fan Zone page.

In addition to its partnership with Coca-Cola, Crypto.com has also become one of major crypto sponsors of this FIFA World Cup. Platform’s logo is placed in stadiums where tournament takes place, and users of the service had an opportunity to visit matches and win official attributes.