Binance Completes $1B Bitcoin Conversion for SAFU Fund

Binance completed the $1 billion Bitcoin conversion for its emergency fund, committing to holding Bitcoin as its core reserve asset.

Binance purchased another $304 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) on Thursday, completing the conversion of $1 billion in Bitcoin for its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) wallet, according to Arkham data.

The fund now holds 15,000 Bitcoin, worth over $1 billion, acquired at an average aggregate cost basis of $67,000 per coin, Binance said in a Thursday X post.

 “With SAFU Fund now fully in Bitcoin, we reinforce our belief in BTC as the premier long-term reserve asset.”

The last tranche of BTC came three days after Binance’s previous $300 million acquisition on Monday.

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The exchange first announced it would convert its $1 billion user protection fund into Bitcoin on Jan. 30, initially pledging a 30-day window for the acquisitions, which were completed in less than two weeks.

The exchange said it would rebalance the fund if volatility pushes its value below $800 million.

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Crypto investor sentiment plunges to lowest levels on record

The conversion comes as broader market sentiment remains deeply negative.

Sentiment took another hit following Bitcoin’s brief correction below $60,000 on Feb. 5, plunging to five on Thursday — the lowest reading on record — signaling extreme fear among investors, according to data from alternative.me.

The index is a multifactorial measure of crypto market sentiment.

The industry’s leading traders by returns, tracked as “smart money,” are also hedging for more crypto market downside.

Smart money traders were net short on Bitcoin for a cumulative $105 million, and net short on most of the leading cryptocurrencies except the Avalanche (AVAX) token, which saw $10.5 million in net cumulative long positioning, according to crypto intelligence platform Nansen.

Bitcoin’s correction also took a significant supply of tokens at a loss equaling to 16% of Bitcoin’s market cap, marking the highest pain point seen in markets since the implosion of algorithmic stablecoin issuer Terra in May 2022, wrote Glassnode in a Monday X post.

Yet in a silver lining to the correction, the market structure is showing early signs of stabilization, according to Dessislava Ianeva, dispatch analyst at digital asset platform Nexo.

“Derivative positioning remains cautious. Funding rates are neutral to slightly negative, reflecting subdued leverage demand, while open interest in native BTC terms has returned to early-February levels, suggesting stabilization rather than a renewed expansion phase,” the analyst told Cointelegraph.

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