Binance Transfers 7,499 BTC From SAFU After Incident and Enables Reserve Verification

Binance’s SAFU BTC transfer is among the exchange’s steps following the recent security incident. The company confirmed that it transferred 7,499 BTC from the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) emergency fund. It also made cryptographic verification available for the October 31 Proof of Reserves (PoR) snapshot covering ten selected assets.

In an October 31 update, Binance said it used a combination of part of the SAFU fund, part of the futures insurance fund and its own corporate treasury to cover losses after the incident. The exchange’s verified account subsequently marked the on-chain transfer of 7,499 BTC from SAFU as completed.

Binance’s SAFU BTC transfer reduced the fund’s immediate reserves

SAFU is Binance’s emergency fund intended for extraordinary situations. The transfer of 7,499 BTC therefore reduces its immediately available reserves. Binance had previously stated its intention to replenish the fund to approximately $1 billion.

However, the exchange did not disclose how much of the remediation came individually from SAFU, the futures insurance fund and the corporate treasury. It has also not been independently confirmed what specific purpose or address the bitcoins were used for after leaving the SAFU wallet. Secondary on-chain tracking states that the recipient of the transfer was not identified.

In its update, Binance said it had replenished 90% of the affected assets as of October 31. However, claims about the extent of coverage and that users will not bear a loss are primarily statements by the exchange itself.

Proof of Reserves enables snapshot verification

An update appeared on Binance’s website on November 2 stating that the October 31 Proof of Reserves snapshot is fully verifiable after a ZK proof is generated. Binance’s PoR mechanism uses a Merkle tree and zk-SNARK proofs. Users can therefore verify that their balances were included in the snapshot and check the coverage of the assets it contains.

The October 31 snapshot included BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, SOL, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD and ZEC. Binance declared 100% coverage for these assets.

This type of verification makes it possible to check a specific reserve status at a selected point in time without relying exclusively on the operator’s statement. However, PoR is not a complete independent audit of Binance’s solvency. It demonstrates coverage of included user assets at that time, not the company’s overall financial position or coverage of all tokens affected by the incident.

What remains unclear

An important open question is the full coverage of additional, particularly less liquid, tokens. Binance has not yet published a detailed technical description of the incident or the precise extent of the damage. The process of replenishing SAFU to the declared value of approximately $1 billion can also be monitored.

For users, the practical operation of restored withdrawals and any potential restrictions will also be important. The currently confirmed information shows a transfer from a publicly trackable emergency fund and the ability to cryptographically check a selected reserve snapshot, but not a complete independent assessment of the incident and the exchange’s financial coverage.

Verified and updated: 11/02/2026 19:07