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Binance’s SAFU fund held about 7,500 BTC, worth USD 580 million, on November 3 after transfers halved its Bitcoin holdings. Blockchain records show four transfers from the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) wallet on October 31. The transfers followed a USD 6.3 billion breach that prompted Binance to use emergency funds.
Binance’s published SAFU wallet held 15,000 BTC in February after the company converted the fund’s stablecoin holdings into Bitcoin. By Tuesday, the balance stood just above 7,500 BTC, blockchain explorer mempool.space showed.
At a Bitcoin price near USD 77,000, those remaining coins were worth about USD 580 million. Their value changes with Bitcoin prices.
SAFU began in 2018 as an emergency reserve for customer losses linked to security incidents. Binance funded it through trading fees and now uses a regulated custodian to manage the reserve. The transfers establish the wallet’s decline but do not reveal the final use of every coin.
Binance confirmed on October 31 that it would deploy part of SAFU to replace stolen assets. It also named its corporate treasury and futures insurance fund as sources of replacement funds.
The exchange committed to rebuilding SAFU to about USD 1 billion. However, it has not published a date for completing the refill or disclosed the exact amount taken from its futures insurance fund.
Its published SAFU policy says Binance will restore the fund to USD 1 billion when its value falls below USD 800 million “due to BTC price fluctuations.” The stated rule does not specify a deadline or automatic top-up following spending.
The remaining Bitcoin’s value is below USD 800 million, but the decline reflects spending rather than only market movements.
Binance said hackers compromised its hot wallets on October 29 and stole crypto worth around USD 6.3 billion. The exchange subsequently set aside more than USD 6.34 billion to cover affected assets.
In its November 2 update, Binance reported that it had covered about 95% of the affected amount. It said the outstanding 5% consisted of less liquid tokens that required further purchases.
Binance also completed verification of its October 31 proof-of-reserves snapshot. It said customers holding ten major assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT, could check that their balances had at least 1:1 backing.
The exchange plans another snapshot on November 4, covering additional tokens. These customer reserve checks are separate from the amount remaining in the SAFU emergency wallet.
Binance restarted withdrawals on selected networks on November 1. Its November 3 notice scheduled another gradual reopening from 04:00 UTC, subject to security checks, while deposits remained available.
On Tuesday, co-CEO Richard Teng said transaction flows had largely returned to normal, Reuters reported. Binance plans to release a report after its investigation.
The FBI attributed the theft to North Korea-linked TraderTraitor hackers. North Korea disputed the allegation, calling it “absurd rhetoric.” Binance previously said about USD 3 billion in affected assets had been frozen on-chain, which does not mean those funds had returned to its control.
Binance maintains that users will not bear the losses. It has yet to provide a specific schedule for restoring the SAFU reserve.
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