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KPMG has resigned as the auditor of Singapore-based fintech firm Triterras, a trade finance and blockchain specialist that went public last year by merging with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC).

The resignation came less than a week after Phase 2 Partners, a US hedge fund, published a damning report claiming that at least 75% of transactions on Triterras’ platform can be traced back to executives at the company. Triterras’s shares have fallen from roughly $11 to $8 since the report was published, giving it a market capitalization of $678 million. 

A Triterras spokesperson said KPMG’s resignation was “a normal course commercial decision that was mutually agreed upon by both parties”.

Triterras runs a commodity trading platform named Kratos, which uses the Ethereum blockchain to execute trades. Phase 2 Partners based much of its report on an analysis of Ethereum blockchain data.

The report also focuses on the “significant history” between the fintech firm’s founder Srinivas Koneru and Rick Maurer, chief executive of the SPAC with which it merged.

In response, Triterras claimed the report was inaccurate and said it was part of an attempt by short sellers to “manipulate the market for Triterras stock for their own financial gain” — a rebuttal that will be familiar to followers of the Wirecard scandal in Europe in 2020. Indeed, Phase 2 Partners went so far as to question whether Triterras is the “Wirecard of blockchain” in the title of its report.

Triterras merged with the Netfin Acquisition Corp. SPAC in November 2020. Netfin had raised $253m via an IPO in August 2019.

A recent regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US regulator, states that Triterras “received formal notice” that KPMG had decided to resign on January 20.

In a separate press release, Triterras said discussions about replacing KPMG as its independent auditor have been ongoing for some time, in part to create distance between Triterras and a related party company named Atanium, formerly known as Rhodium Resources — a company that drew intense scrutiny in the Phase 2 Partners report. Both Rhodium and Triterras were using KPMG as their auditor when they were established.

Triterras’s spokesperson said the firm has been taking other steps to separate the businesses, including installing separate management teams. They said naming different external auditors is part of this effort.  

Triterras’s audit committee has kicked off an independent investigation into the accusations made by Phase 2 Partners, which Triterras claims caused “significant volatility” in its share price.

The fintech firm also stressed that KPMG’s audit reports for the financial years ended February 2019 and 2020 “did not contain an adverse opinion or a disclaimer of opinion and were not qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope or accounting principle,” which KPMG confirmed in a separate SEC filing.

Triterras is now “aggressively pursuing another auditor of similar esteem and profile”, the spokesperson told The Block. But they would not specify which companies are being considered.

KPMG, Phase 2 Partners and Netfin did not respond to requests for comment.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

NYDIG has appointed former Square Capital lead executive Jacqueline D. Reses to its board of directors, the company announced Tuesday. 

According to the announcement, Reses’ new role will focus on the expansion of NYDIG’s Platform Solutions business, which will enable insurance companies, banks, and other fintech businesses to offer bitcoin-related services. 

“I [also] know that Jackie shares our vision for Bitcoin powering freer and fairer access to the financial system for all, especially the most vulnerable and unprepared for continued fiat depreciation,” said founder and executive chairman of NYDIG Ross Stevens in a statement.

Before Square, Reses was the chief development officer at Yahoo! and head of the US media group at global private equity firm Apax Partners. Reses also worked in mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs and currently serves as chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Economic Advisory Council.

“I’m thrilled to be joining NYDIG’s incredible team and distinguished Board of Directors at such an exciting and pivotal time for the firm, as well as for the wider Bitcoin industry,” said Reses. “As the market continues to mature and expand, I look forward to applying my experience to support NYDIG’s mission of safely unlocking the power of Bitcoin for all.”

Earlier this month, NYDIG acquired Digital Assets Data in one of 2021’s earliest crypto industry M&A deals.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Pantera Capital’s CEO Dan Morehead says initial coin offerings (ICO) aren’t dead, but the investment world is shifting toward a narrative dominated by Bitcoina nd Ethereum.

“Crypto as a market is so volatile that the narrative changes,” said Morehead on this week’s episode of The Scoop. 

That narrative lately has been all about bitcoin’s growing adoption. From Microstrategy to Stone Ridge Holdings — and maybe soon the city of Miami — big players are allocating to the top cryptocurrency.

But as the money flows towards bitcoin adoption, ICO’s aren’t over, according to Morehead. Pantera is still pitched one every two to four months, and the firm’s initial coin offering (ICO) fund ended 2020 up more than 500%. 

Still, that’s a sharp decline from the 50 pitches a week Pantera sifted through in 2017, and its bitcoin fund closed 2020 up nearly 300%. The crypto narrative for investors is trending towards Bitcoin amid institutional adoption, Morehead told The Scoop.

“We’re really seeing an inflection point with more coming into the market over the last couple of months…. I think the reality is they’re looking for managers that manage multiasset funds sometimes both tokens and venture and they ultimately want that all to be within a handful of managers,” he said.

Lately, Morehead is fielding calls from endowments, putting the industry at an intriguing inflection point. Driving the interest in bitcoin is the current macro backdrop as well as bitcoin’s block reward halving last year—which the firm said could play a role in bringing its price to $115,000. 

Morehead broke down what that means for the coming year on this week’s episode, along with:

• Why the market is so focused on BTC and ETH
• What institutional investors want out of a bitcoin or crypto fund manager 
• Why Coinbase’s initial public offering will kick off public offering wave
• How the industry is going to consolidate in the coming years
• Why Pantera is “much more bullish on Ethereum” than other parts of the space.

Disclosure: Pantera was an investor in a past funding round for The Block.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.