Binance plans to convert approximately $1 billion in its SAFU insurance fund from stablecoins to Bitcoin within 30 days.
Binance has said it will convert approximately $1 billion worth of stablecoins within its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) into Bitcoin (BTC), with the process completed within 30 days.
The move shifts the exchange’s emergency insurance reserve back to BTC and comes at a time when Binance faces renewed scrutiny over its market influence, balance sheet practices and leadership ties to former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao.
Binance portrays the SAFU shift as part of a broader transparency push
In an open letter posted on X on January 30, Binance said said the SAFU fund will be fully converted into Bitcoin and replenished to $1 billion if its value falls below $800 million due to price drops. The exchange added that the fund will be regularly rebalanced based on market value.
SAFU was launched in 2018 as an insurance pool to cover user losses during extreme events such as hacks. In April 2024, Binance fully converted the fund to USDC, a move it viewed at the time as a stability measure. That conversion made SAFU equivalent to about 3% of USDC’s circulating supply, according to Binance’s disclosures at the time.
The latest change reverses that approach. Binance said it views BTC as the long-term store of value for the crypto ecosystem and framed the decision as a way to align SAFU with that belief.
“We believe Bitcoin is the fundamental asset of this ecosystem and the most important long-term store of value,” the announcement said.
It also highlighted internal figures from 2025, including $48 million recovered from incorrect deposits and $6.69 billion in scam-related losses prevented by risk controls.
The community response was swift. Commentator Garrett called the step ‘a direct capital injection into the market’ and ‘what responsible builders do’.
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Binance’s position and prevailing sentiment
The announcement came as new data from CryptoQuant showed that Binance accounted for approximately 41% of spot trading volume across the top 10 exchanges in 2025, with similarly high shares in Bitcoin perpetual futures and stablecoin reserves.
It also follows recent public debates involving former CEO Changpeng Zhao. On January 28, he defended his personal buy-and-hold investing philosophy after criticism on social media, clarifying that the strategy “clearly does not apply to every coin.”
Some community members, like The White Whale, expressed broader frustration: noticing timelines were “filled with people fed up with CZ and the Binance cartel,” linking the sentiment to the start of a bear market.
The Binance co-founder, who stepped down as CEO in 2023, weighed in: to report,
“FUD does not harm the target… FUD harms the market (i.e. everyone).”
He added that Binance, based on his knowledge, is “a large net hoarder” of assets, and pushed back against claims that the exchange or its leadership sells heavily during recessions.
In a post on He also pointed to the presence of a global regulator that oversees stock exchange activities.
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