French auditing firm Mazars Group has paused work for all crypto clients globally, according to crypto exchange Binance, which was a customer of the auditing firm.

“Mazars has indicated that they will temporarily pause their work with all of their crypto clients globally, which include Crypto.com, KuCoin, and Binance. Unfortunately, this means that we will not be able to work with Mazars for the moment,” a spokesperson for the firm said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg News on Friday.

Mazars, Crypto.com and Kucoin didn't immediately return requests seeking comment. 

Bitcoin fell as much as 2.4 per cent to US$16,978 in early Europe trading following Binance's statement.

Paris-headquartered Mazars has been at the forefront of the crypto industry's rush to conduct so-called “proof of reserves” reports for the likes of Binance and other large exchanges, following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX in November.

However proof of reserves reports have faced scrutiny as they are not a full audit, in that they only show a firm's assets, not its liabilites, and instead serve as snapshots in time that say the information provided by clients broadly checks out.

“We embrace additional transparency and we are looking into how best to provide those details in the coming months,” the Binance spokesperson added.