Binance kicked off its $1 billion SAFU conversion into Bitcoin with a $100 million purchase, shifting its user protection fund out of stablecoins and into BTC.
Crypto exchange Binance bought its first 1,315 Bitcoin as part of its conversion plan for the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU).
The Bitcoin (BTC), worth $101 million, was bought for an average price of $77,409.89 per coin, according to data from Blockchain.com. Binance said it expects to shift the rest of SAFU’s $1B from stablecoins to Bitcoin within the next 27 days.
A Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph on Friday that the SAFU fund will continue to be used as a backstop for users in the event of extreme incidents or losses.
Binance shifts SAFU reserves from USDC to BTC
The SAFU fund, launched in 2018, is a dedicated user protection pool funded by Binance trading fees. In 2024, Binance shifted the stablecoin portion of SAFU from BUSD into USDC. The exchange positioned the move as a way to keep the emergency fund liquid, reliable and tied to the US dollar.
The conversion to BTC moves SAFU out of stablecoins altogether, meaning the emergency fund will be held entirely in Bitcoin rather than stablecoins.
Binance still has about $900 million in buying power, earmarked for BTC allocations.
The move comes as markets reel from a sharp crypto sell-off, which saw the price of BTC fall briefly below $75,000.
It also follows fresh buy-the-dip signals from Michael Saylor’s Strategy, which hinted that it would add more Bitcoin after the weekend crash pushed BTC below its cost basis.
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