Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has raised its emergency insurance fund “SAFU” to US$1 billion equivalent in cryptocurrencies, founder Changpeng Zhao said in a Tweet on Wednesday.
See related article: Markets: Bitcoin hits year low, Ether slumps as Binance rescue of FTX unnerves investors
Fast facts
- SAFU, or Secure Asset Fund for Users, was set up in July 2018 to protect users’ funds, and Binance committed a percentage of trading fees in order to grow it to a sizable level.
- The SAFU fund wallets comprise Binance Coin (BNB), its USD-backed stablecoin BUSD, and Bitcoin (BTC), and was valued at US$1 billion based on the opening price on Jan. 29.
- But current market conditions have lowered that value to US$735 million, Binance said in a statement on Wednesday.
- “To adjust to recent price fluctuations, Binance has topped up the SAFU insurance fund to US$1 billion equivalent again,” Zhao assured users in his tweet.
- SAFU addresses hold about US$700 million while Bitcoin addresses hold some US$300 million, Zhao’s Tweet said.
- Binance said on Sunday it would sell all its holdings of FTX’s native crypto token FTT, while announcing on Tuesday that it will bail out FTX by acquiring it amid speculation of solvency issues at FTX.
See related article: Binance becomes white knight for fallen FTX: How did we get here?