'Big Short' investor Michael Burry says crypto reserve reviews like Binance's are 'essentially meaningless'

• Michael Burry commented on news that the accountant that produced Binance's proof-of-reserves report would halt all work for crypto firms.

• The legendary "Big Short" investor described proof of reserves, which has been popularized since FTX's implosion, as "essentially meaningless."

• Burry was one of the first investors who predicted the subprime mortgage crisis.

Michael Burry, the legendary investor who foresaw the subprime mortgage crisis, is wary of so-called proof of reserves that crypto exchanges have touted since FTX crashed.

The "Big Short" former hedge fund manager tweeted on Friday that such reviews on a firm's digital holdings are "essentially meaningless."

"In 2005 when I started using a new kind of credit default swap, our auditors were learning on the job," Burry tweeted on Friday. "That's not a good thing. Same goes for FTX, Binance, etc. The audit is essentially meaningless."

The tweet came as a comment on news that Mazars, the French accounting firm used by Binance and other larger players in the space to produce proof-of-reserves reports, halted all work with crypto-related clients on Friday.

Binance in particular has touted proof of reserves as a way to assure customers that their assets are secure in an effort to boost transparency amid the FTX scandal.

But critics have said that proof of reserves doesn't provide a complete picture of a company's risks and can be misleading.

There's been a thunderous cry for audits of major crypto firm's following the collapse of FTX, the once $32 billion empire started by Sam Bankman-Fried.

FTX filed for bankruptcy last month after a Coindesk report revealed that FTX's native token FTT was being used to prop up Bankman-Fried's quant trading firm Alameda Research. The embattled firm lost $8 billion of customer money as a result.

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