Overview
On February 17, 2023, The Wall Street Journal quoted Coy Garrison in a piece titled "Lack of Crypto Audit Regulation Raises Questions About PCAOB Authority." The article discusses calls that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) be the regulator that brings supervision to bear on auditors of cryptocurrency companies. The SEC, which oversees the PCAOB, is reviewing how crypto companies portray reports from audit firms in the aftermath of the FTX collapse.
Garrison said in regards to lawmakers criticizing the PCAOB’s response to questionable practices by auditors of crypto companies: "Their view ignores the PCAOB's statutory authority and hasn’t been applied by the regulator." Garrison also remarked that calls by some accountants to classify centralized crypto exchanges as broker-dealers, thereby subjecting their audits to PCAOB oversight are premature, noting "that would require the SEC to classify crypto assets as securities through a rule-making process."
Read the full article at The Wall Street Journal [subscription required].
