If we have to pick a villain in the world of cryptocurrencies and stable coins it would definitely be Tether which has never come clean on its dollar backings. On the other hand its competitor, USDC was appreciated for its transparency and independent audits. But the audits of USDC have come under the cloud, as Coinbase has hired an ex Grant Thornton employee as its compliance head raising finger on the independence of audit report

USDC releases 4^th Audit report -Is it completely independent?

In a move that makes USDC a real transparent stablecoin, Circle, the company behind USDC released their fourth report on the USDC stablecoin which was signed by the leading auditor firm Grant Thornton which stated that Circle has sufficient USD reserves to back each individual token on a 1:1 basis.  According to the report that is published on February 15,2019 – 307,793,724 USDC tokens were issued and were outstanding on January 31 2019, while the company held 307,848,312 dollars in deposits, an excess of 54588-dollar reserves.

According to the report these USDC tokens are the amount of tokens which have been issued and outstanding denoted under the original USDC contract at the reported date and time.

It is clear that there has been an increased number of USDC’s in circulation by around 56 million showing a clear popularity of the coin in absence of transparency for Tether. Also, the independent scrutinization process assured that all seems to be as expected with the coin having sufficient backing of USD reserves.

While the report looks all independent and error-free, A Twitter account that tries to locate muck in crypto projects has put forward a point worth considering. The user, named ICO Scam Alert, points out to the news that came in last week of January which showed Coinbase hiring Mark Kelly, a new U.K. head of compliance with three decades of experience in the industry. If one looks at the experience of Mark Kelly, he hails from Grant Thornton- and had held a position of Technology Risk Consultant during the period of March 2008 and September 2011.

Now according to this Twitter user, the independence of the audit report has been compromised due to the

First Goldman Sachs struggles for doing @GrantThornton , the middle-tier firm, an auditor of #USDC. Then @coinbase hires a new UK compliance chief Mark Kelly, a former Grant Thornton employee.

— Ico Scam Alert (@ItsIcoScamAlert) February 19, 2019

Now @Circle's trying to prove that this audit was independent. If #USDC's really backed by something why don't you ask for an audit someone else except your partner? #USDC is #crypto scam.

— Ico Scam Alert (@ItsIcoScamAlert) February 19, 2019

While it looks to be a real long short that Kelly was appointed to help Circle compromise on the audit report, keeping an eye and ear open is appreciated. While the report looks sufficiently covered, Circle may want to run another audit to squash this blame.

Is USDC audit report independent or Kelly has a role in positively portraying it? Do have a look and let us know your views on the same.

About Author

Nilesh Maurya

Nilesh Maurya has been associated for past 8 years as an Investment Banker with Omega Capital, a bespoke Investment Banking outfit having offices in Mumbai, New York, Singapore, and Dubai. He has been a regular contributor to business publications such as Business India and Market Express and has been a mentor to many start-up companies. Nilesh Maurya has been associated for past 8 years as an Investment Banker with Omega Capital, a bespoke Investment Banking outfit having offices in Mumbai, New York, Singapore, and Dubai. He has been a regular contributor to business publications such as Business India and Market Express and has been a mentor to many start-up companies. Follow him on Twitter at @KoinKing1 or connect with me on linkedin.