Binance SAFU Fund Loses Half Its Bitcoin Holdings, Leaving $580M in Reserve

Binance has deployed approximately half of the Bitcoin held in its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), reducing the emergency reserve to around $580 million. The exchange has promised to rebuild the fund but has not specified when the replenishment will be completed.

Blockchain data from mempool.space showed that Binance’s designated SAFU wallet, 1BAuq7Vho2CEkVkUxbfU26LhwQjbCmWQkD, held just over 7,500 BTC as of Tuesday. Four transactions carried out on October 31 account for the latest reduction in its balance.

The wallet previously contained around 15,000 BTC in February, following Binance’s decision to convert its approximately $1 billion user protection fund from stablecoins into Bitcoin.

With BTC trading near $77,000, the remaining coins represent roughly $580 million in value.

Bitcoin Reserve Drops Below $800 Million

Binance’s published SAFU guidelines state that the exchange will replenish the fund to $1 billion if its value falls below $800 million because of Bitcoin price fluctuations.

However, the policy does not clearly specify whether the same threshold applies when the exchange uses the reserve for emergency funding rather than when its value declines due to market movements.

On October 31, Binance confirmed that it would use part of SAFU to help finance a $6.34 billion response to the security breach. The recovery package also includes contributions from the company’s corporate treasury and a portion of its futures insurance fund.

Binance said it would restore SAFU to approximately $1 billion but did not provide a deadline. The exchange has also withheld details about the amount withdrawn from its futures insurance reserve.

Binance Has Yet to Disclose a Refill Date

The latest wallet balance leaves the user protection fund significantly below its original target, while the exchange has yet to explain how quickly it intends to rebuild the reserve.

CoinDesk has contacted Binance for comment regarding the remaining balance and replenishment plans.

The development comes after Binance said it had replaced 90% of the cryptocurrency lost in the $6.3 billion breach.