Grant Thornton audits more than $10 billion in cryptoassets in three months – across 40 cryptocurrencies

 

Move demonstrates Grant Thornton’s prowess auditing companies in the cryptocurrency industry

 

CHICAGO — In a move that demonstrates its prowess auditing companies in the cryptocurrency industry, Grant Thornton LLP has announced that it audited more than $10 billion in cryptoassets during the first three months of 2019. Moreover, these audits covered 40 different cryptocurrencies across more than 100 million addresses.

Cryptocurrency companies face a growing imperative from investors and regulators to verify the existence and value of their stated assets. Grant Thornton is stepping in to help by marrying its proprietary cryptocurrency technology with its more than 90 years of audit experience and rigor.

“Cryptocurrency companies must contend with an auditing challenge that is at once simple and complex,” says Johnny Lee, national practice leader for Forensic Technology Services at Grant Thornton. “First, can you prove that you own and control the assets you are claiming as yours? And, second, do those assets really exist – and can you prove as much?”

These questions can be hard to answer since the audit trail for shared ledgers is not intuitive; shared-ledger coins are designed to consummate transactions, not necessarily to lighten the load for an auditor. Establishing a point-in-time balance for a given cryptoasset can be a tremendously intricate endeavor requiring an auditor to parse and index transaction histories in a sophisticated manner.

“We’ve accomplished that at Grant Thornton,” says Markus Veith, a partner in the Audit practice at Grant Thornton and leader of the firm’s Digital Assets practice. “We’ve spent four years developing technology platforms and auditing methodologies that allow us to create point-in-time balances for cryptocurrencies – and we’ve done it with a level of accuracy that satisfies strict auditing standards. The result is that we can independently verify what a company holds in various cryptocurrencies.”

Veith is referring to Grant Thornton’s proprietary hybrid-cloud audit platform, which allows Grant Thornton to provide a variety of solutions to its cryptocurrency clients. The platform houses complete archival copies of blockchains for 40 cryptocurrencies, including:

 

  • Bitcoin,
  • Bitcoin Cash,
  • Ethereum,
  • All ERC20-compliant tokens,
  • Ripple,
  • EOS,
  • Tezos,
  • Zcash,
  • Monero,
  • Dogecoin,
  • Steem,
  • NEM,
  • Siacoin,
  • Omni,
  • NXT, and
  • Burst.


As Veith said, Grant Thornton has also developed proprietary methods for testing the ownership and existence of each of these currencies, with capabilities that often exceed what is possible using more widely available tools like public blockchain-explorers.

Further, to scale these capabilities to the rapid testing of tens of millions of addresses, Grant Thornton has developed proprietary forensic nodes for certain complex currencies like Ethereum, Ethereum tokens, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash – and many of the other leading Bitcoin-derivative UTXO currencies.

Lee concludes by pointing out that Grant Thornton excels because it can audit a variety of cryptocurrencies and test millions of addresses at scale. “We did it for 40 cryptocurrencies and more than 100 million addresses in the first three months of this year alone,” he says.

To learn more about auditing cryptocurrency and how Grant Thornton can help, visit https://www.grantthornton.com/auditing-blockchain

 

About Grant Thornton

Grant Thornton” is the brand for two professional-services entities: Grant Thornton LLP, a licensed, certified public accounting (CPA) firm that provides audit and assurance services ― and Grant Thornton Advisors LLC (not a licensed CPA firm), which exclusively provides non-attest offerings, including tax and advisory services. With revenues of $2.4 billion for the fiscal year that ended July 31, 2023, and dozens of offices nationwide, Grant Thornton represents a community of more than 9,000 problem solvers, relationship builders, and industry specialists who know that how we serve matters as much as what we do.

 

Grant Thornton LLP, Grant Thornton Advisors LLC and their respective subsidiaries operate as an alternative practice structure (APS). The APS conforms with applicable laws, regulations and professional standards, including those from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

 

Grant Thornton LLP and Grant Thornton Advisors LLC serve as the U.S. member firms of the Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL) network. GTIL and its member firms are not a worldwide partnership and all member firms are separate legal entities. Member firms deliver all services; GTIL does not provide services to clients.

 

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