Originally released On: 29 May 2020 via Cointelegraph (Link below)
The Big Four Are Gearing Up to Become Crypto and Blockchain Auditors
Blockchain technology, along with the adoption of cryptocurrencies, is gaining momentum. The enterprise blockchain market is expected to reach $21 billion over the next five years. Just eleven years on, and both sectors have matured greatly, resulting in well-established organizations taking the technology more seriously as they tackle challenges that come with implementing blockchain and the use of digital assets.
Unsurprisingly, professional services giants are among those taking a larger role in tackling new market challenges. The Big Four firms and Fortune 500 companies are working with a number of blockchain and crypto companies on ways to combat regulatory uncertainty, interoperability challenges, consensus models and development of the technology.
Henri Arslanian, PwC’s global crypto leader, told Cointelegraph that the Big Four firms specifically have a very important role to play in the advancement of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, saying:
“Although Bitcoin was designed with a trustless ideology, the reality is that the industry still requires trusted entities to catalyze the development of the ecosystem.”
Arslanian noted that not many people took crypto seriously when he first joined PwC three years ago. However, he saw fast growth, which drove the company’s Hong Kong firm to accept Bitcoin payments from clients two years ago. Since then, PwC has formed “crypto teams” in 20 countries, consisting of 200 people in total that work on crypto-related projects. “Just within the cryptocurrency sector, we’ve conducted over 350 engagements in the last 18 months,”
Arslanian said. PwC’s crypto teams are not only focused on tax and accounting challenges, but audit and assurance services are also in demand. Arslanian explained:
“Over the last couple of months, we’ve expanded our work. We recently closed the first ever crypto fundraising deal at PwC, in which we led a $14 million series A round for a Swiss-based crypto firm with Asian family offices. We are also the auditor for BC Group, a publicly listed crypto company in Hong Kong.”
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