Binance has spent half its SAFU bitcoin, about $580 million worth, data shows

Binance has drained half the bitcoin from the emergency fund it built to protect users, and hasn’t said when the money goes back.

The address Binance publishes as its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) wallet, 1BAuq7Vho2CEkVkUxbfU26LhwQjbCmWQkD, held just above 7,500 $BTC as of Tuesday after four transactions on Oct. 31, according to mempool.space.

It held 15,000 $BTC in February, when Binance finished converting the roughly $1 billion fund from stablecoins into bitcoin.

At about $77,000 a coin, the remaining bitcoin is worth about $580 million.

Binance’s SAFU FAQ says the exchange rebalances the fund back to $1 billion if its value falls below $800 million “due to $BTC price fluctuations.” The rule doesn’t cover the fund being spent.

Binance said on Oct. 31 it would make a partial SAFU deployment as part of the $6.34 billion it set aside to cover the hack, alongside its corporate treasury and a portion of its futures insurance fund, and pledged to restore the fund to about $1 billion.

It gave no timeline for the refill and hasn’t said how much of the insurance fund was used.

CoinDesk has reached out to Binance for comment.

Read more: Binance says it has replaced 90% of stolen crypto after massive $6.3 billion breach

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