Structural failure
Auditor Inadequacy
Audit relationships with firms that lack the expertise, independence or staffing to validate the claims being made.
Records exhibiting this pattern
FTX Collapse — November 2022
The world's second-largest crypto exchange filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy within nine days of a leaked Alameda balance sheet that revealed commingled customer funds.
$8.00B affectedCelsius Network Collapse — July 2022
The largest centralised crypto lender suspended withdrawals on 12 June 2022 and filed for Chapter 11 a month later, owing approximately $4.7 billion to retail depositors.
$4.70B affectedQuadrigaCX Collapse — January 2019
Canada's largest crypto exchange collapsed after its 30-year-old founder Gerald Cotten was pronounced dead in India in December 2018, leaving sole access to ~$190M in customer funds. Forensic investigation later concluded the exchange had been a Ponzi scheme.
$190.0M affectedMt. Gox Collapse — February 2014
The exchange handling 70 percent of global Bitcoin trading suspended withdrawals, filed for bankruptcy, and disclosed the loss of 850,000 BTC — a recovery that is still being distributed to creditors a decade later.
$450.0M affected