Binance Has Spent Half of Its SAFU Bitcoin
Binance used SAFU after the hack and let the emergency fund drop to just over 7,500 BTC. The fund, meant to protect users, will later be topped back up to around $1 billion.
Key Takeaways
- Binance has spent about half of the bitcoin in its SAFU emergency fund.
- The fund held just over 7,500 BTC on Tuesday, worth about $580 million.
- Binance is using SAFU as part of the $6.34 billion set aside for the hack and plans to refill the fund later.
Binance has spent about half of the bitcoin in its SAFU emergency fund. The fund is meant to protect users in the event of a hack or another security incident. On Tuesday, it held just over 7,500 BTC. That is worth about $580 million (€517 million) at a price of around $77,000 (€68,700) per bitcoin.
SAFU Fund Shrinks Fast
The wallet that Binance publishes as its Secure Asset Fund for Users, with address 1BAuq7Vho2CEkVkUxbfU26LhwQjbCmWQkD, received four transactions on October 31. According to mempool.space, it still held just over 7,500 BTC at that point. In February, the fund still held 15,000 BTC after Binance converted the fund’s value from stablecoins into bitcoin.
Binance says in its own FAQ that the fund is topped back up to $1 billion (€0.9 billion) if its value falls below $800 million (€713 million) because of Bitcoin price swings. That rule does not apply to money that is actually spent. The company has not yet said when the fund will be replenished.
Spending After the Hack
On October 31, Binance said it was using part of SAFU as part of the $6.34 billion (€5.7 billion) it set aside to absorb the hack. The company is also using its own cash and part of the futures insurance fund. Binance said at the time that the SAFU fund should eventually return to around $1 billion (€0.9 billion), but it did not give a timeline.
The move shows how much pressure emergency reserves can come under after an incident at a major crypto exchange. For European crypto readers, the key point is that these funds do not just move with the Bitcoin price, they can also actually be tapped in a security problem. That makes the size and management of these reserves especially important for users who keep their crypto on an exchange. Earlier, Binance’s $6.34 billion reserve also showed how the exchange is trying to absorb the damage from the hack internally.