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.”

What to expect from Football Fan Token during FIFA World Cup 2022. Which platforms have joined the sporting event, what happens to the coins of the national teams. And which of the competition-related assets are most attractive for investment

On November 20, the FIFA World Cup in Qatar kicked off and will run until December 18. Cryptocurrency community actively participates in the event. Many platforms are sponsoring it, and cryptocurrency exchanges are adding new fan tokens for football teams and announcing promotions related to the World Cup.

The championship is sponsored by Algorand Blockchain (ALGO), which will continue to help FIFA with developments related to digital assets after this event. World Cup 2022 is also sponsored by Crypto com, a crypto platform. Users of this exchange were able to attend matches and win official paraphernalia.

Crypto exchange Binance launched a promotion for fans called Binance Football Fever 2022. It allows you to win rewards during the Championship by completing tasks. OKX platform launched the OKX Football Festival promotion on the occasion of this event. In which platform users can win participation in NFT airdrop.

Huobi raffled off tickets to the FIFA World Cup 2022 in October, while Poloniex held the “Poloniex FIFA World Cup Carnival” with a prize pool of $100k. Platform MEXC launched a referral program that could win $4.5k, and Gate.io runs the Gate.io World Cup NFT Collection, with a pool of $10k and other prizes.

At the same time, a lot of championship-themed tokens and NFT collections have popped up online due to sports hype. Which have unclear tokenomics and unknown developers. If you want to join the digital celebration of football, it is worth carefully studying the history of each project and its financial component.

Fan tokens from football teams

In September, crypto exchanges MEXC, Gate and OKX added tokens for teams from Spain, Brazil, Argentina and Portugal ahead of FIFA World Cup 2022. The first two coins have been issued on the Bitci platform, while the second two support the Socios and Chiliz platforms.

Argentina – Argentine Football Association Fan Token (ARG)

Despite the fact that the championship has just started. And Lionel Messi’s team token has already seen a drop of 24% after Argentina’s loss to Saudi Arabia 1:2.

The result of the match was unexpected, as the Saudi team was considered the outsider in the group. The coin has since recovered slightly in the 24 hours since then, rising 4.2% to $5.61. Argentina’s next game is on November 26, their opponent is Mexico.

Brazil – Brazil National Football Team Fan Token (BFT)

The token had been around $1 at the start of the tournament, but dropped 10% on November 23 and is hovering around $0.69. The first match of the team will be on November 24, the Latin American team will play against Serbian team.

Spain – Spain National Football Team Fan Token (SNFT)

The first game of the Spanish national team will be on November 23. It will be played against Costa Rica. The rate of SNFT token before the match is at $0.35 and shows a daily decline of 2.2%.

Portugal – Portugal National Team Fan Token (POR)

The cryptocurrency POR is worth about $4.92 on November 23 and is up 2.9% per day. The team will play their first match against rivals from Ghana on November 24.

France Fan Token (FRA)

The French team’s first game was on November 22. The French defeated Australia 4-1. The FRA token increased by 147% to $0.0013 during the day. Next game of team will be held on November 26, the opponent will be Denmark.

FAN token function has changed

Although Fan tokens were designed to address utilitarian issues. And to enable loyal fans to become more involved in life for their favourite teams. But today, these coins are not being used in the way the developers intended.

Paradoxically, they were originally intended for purely technical functions. Now fan tokens have instead become a kind of “shares” for clubs, according to our Crypto-Upvotes experts.

Because tokens have become priced not in terms of their value to a fan, but in terms of their success and public reputation. In this regard, the fan-token market has become a totalizator. And it has already been compromised by the ability to manipulate the price regardless of the actual success of teams.

Where to invest?

If you consider the investment component of this segment, first of all, you need to keep an eye on platforms and blockchains. Which ones are placing such tokens, not the fan tokens themselves. For example, it looks more strategic to buy a conventional Chiliz (CHZ) token than a coin from some promising sports club.

CHZ cryptocurrency was released back in the fall of 2018 on Ethereum as a control token for a fan token ecosystem that was being created. And a year later, Chiliz Chain of the Ethereum network was created to reduce commissions. This project brought most of its fan community together under the Socios.com aegis. They became the first blockchain project to start issuing tokens for sports fans.

Cryptocurrency Shiliz (CHZ) is quoted at $0.183 on November 23. Before the start of World Cup 2022 it was worth $0.26, but by the evening of November 22 it was down to $0.17. For the previous day the coin grew in price by 2.2%.

In addition to Chiliz and its Social.com platform, Turkish platform Bitci is gaining momentum. It has already issued tokens for football teams of Brazil, Peru and Spain, Turkish national basketball team and many other sports teams. Which are mostly from Turkey and Spanish-speaking countries.

Decentralized transactions allow buyers and sellers to set their own terms for cryptocurrency transactions. Main benefits and disadvantages of P2P

Peer-to-peer (P2P) trading is direct trade of users with each other without an exchange as an agent. When working on a traditional crypto exchange, platform organizes transaction on behalf of client. And market price determines the exact price of asset at moment of transaction. P2P trading implies a transaction directly between users on terms they choose.

However, such transactions carry certain risks due to lack of a third party. Large platforms provide some protection for the parties to transactions by offering escrow accounts, feedback systems and user ratings. When making P2P transactions outside of a crypto platform, risks of coming across scammers increase a lot.

How P2P works

A P2P platform is a meeting place for buyers and sellers. Allowing them to conclude a deal on favorable terms for both parties. A user publishes an ad on a platform, specifying specific terms for buying or selling cryptocurrency. These are terms such as price, payment methods and limits.

Second party browses listings and, after selecting optimal conditions, places an order to conduct a transaction with a specific seller. Platforms offer a variety of filters for searching. You can select merchants by their location, payment methods, rating, and even view only those who are fully verified. Most platforms offer information on specific sellers: how many orders they executed, customer reviews, and trade volumes.

Exchange is a guarantor of transaction transparency and honesty. Also platform resolves disputes between its participants. Many exchanges offer escrow for transaction time. Escrow accounts are used: assets are held on them until a buyer makes a payment.

Verification is not always required to work on P2P platforms. Some services do not require personal information. And somewhere they only ask for a phone number or e-mail address. But there are also platforms that require full KYC verification and Google Authenticator. Sometimes services ask for additional information to increase trading limits. But mostly they allow trading cryptocurrencies without disclosing a lot of personal information.

Also, to attract new users, cryptoplatforms offer referral programs. Client receives a percentage of exchange commission from each transaction of their invited users. Opportunities for market participants to buy cryptocurrency on P2P exchanges are constantly expanding.

Benefits of P2P

• When trading on P2P exchanges, many more payment methods are available compared to traditional platforms. Payment methods include bank transfers, cash, using e-wallets, PayPal, gift cards, SWIFT transfers, Western Union and others.
• P2P platforms in most cases allow traders to connect to a service and conduct transactions with zero fees. Not all P2P exchanges offer such service. That’s why it’s a strong point to review terms and conditions of your chosen marketplace. Some exchanges impose a small commission for placing an ad or % of transaction amount.
• Transaction protection with an escrow service blocks funds until parties comply with transaction terms. If either party fails to do so, cryptocurrency or fiat funds are returned.
• You don’t have to have a bank account to buy cryptocurrency on a P2P exchange. Most platforms require only Internet access and a phone.

Disadvantages of P2P

• Although P2P transactions are fast enough, one party may delay the transaction for a variety of reasons. Also, buyer or seller may change his or her mind and cancel transaction while processing transaction. A normal transaction can take anywhere from 10 min to several days (depending on chosen payment method).
• Liquidity on P2P platforms is lower than on CEX exchanges. Therefore, traders making large transactions usually prefer to work on a standard exchange or over-the-counter trading. When platforms provide options to buy and sell cryptocurrency from an administrator or broker (OTC).

Our Crypto-Upvotes experts warn that as with many other cryptocurrency transactions. When you trade on P2P-platform there is a high risk of entering into a deal with a scammer. To prevent meeting with a scammer, you should choose a solid platform for transactions and carefully read statistics of partners. Or choose large CEX exchanges for P2P trading: Binance, OKX, etc.