Binance Taps Half Its SAFU Bitcoin, Releases Reserve Proof

Binance’s publicly disclosed emergency Bitcoin wallet held roughly half its previous balance on Monday after the exchange tapped its user protection fund to cover losses from Thursday’s $6.3 billion hack.

The exchange confirmed a transfer of 7,499 Bitcoin (BTC) on Saturday, linking it to the partial deployment of its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU).

As of Monday, the wallet held about 7,500 BTC, worth $583 million, down from about 15,000 BTC before the transfer.

The theft, the largest in cryptocurrency history, forced Binance to suspend withdrawals while it worked to replace the stolen assets. The FBI attributed the attack to North Korea on Saturday, identifying the hackers as TraderTraitor.

Binance began reopening withdrawals in phases on Sunday and said it had replenished approximately 95% of the affected assets, up from 90% a day earlier. It continued buying the remaining, less-liquid tokens through market and over-the-counter transactions.

The exchange is using its corporate treasury, SAFU and part of its futures insurance fund to cover the losses.

SAFU policy sets no deadline to replace funds used after hacks

Binance’s SAFU policy outlines regular monitoring and rebalancing of the fund’s market value.

“If the fund’s market value falls below US $800 million due to BTC price fluctuations, Binance will rebalance the fund to restore its value to $1 billion,” it states.

The policy does not specify a timeline for replenishing funds withdrawn following a security incident.

Binance did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s questions about SAFU’s remaining reserves, further deployments and plans to replenish the fund.

Binance releases verification proof for post-hack reserves

Binance said Monday that users could now verify their balances against its Saturday proof-of-reserves snapshot after it completed the accompanying cryptographic proof.

The exchange said the snapshot showed customer holdings in 10 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether and USDT, were backed at least 1:1.

The exchange plans to take another snapshot covering more tokens on Wednesday, with the accompanying proof expected to take another 40 to 50 hours to generate.