Binance reduce a la mitad su fondo de protección en bitcoin (BTC), que queda en 7.500 BTC valorados en unos 580 millones de dólares

Crypto News and Tradfi News - COINOTAG · 2026-11-03T06:54:37.000Z

• La billetera SAFU de Binance bajó a unos 7.500 BTC después de que cuatro transacciones del 31 de octubre redujeran sus tenencias a la mitad. • El fondo restante vale aproximadamente 580 millones de dólares, con el bitcoin cerca de los 77.000 dólares. • SAFU tenía 15.000 BTC en febrero, después de que Binance convirtiera en bitcoin un fondo de 1.000 millones de dólares que estaba en monedas estables. Quedan 7.500 BTC en la billetera SAFU Binance ha vaciado la mitad de los bitcoins que mantenía en su fondo de protección de emergencia para usuarios, y no ha dicho cuándo —ni si acaso— volverán las monedas. Según los registros en cadena, la dirección que Binance publica como billetera de su Fondo de Activos Seguros para Usuarios (SAFU), 1BAuq7Vho2CEkVkUxbfU26LhwQjbCmWQkD, tenía poco más de 7.500 BTC el martes. Cuatro transacciones salientes el 31 de octubre redujeron ese saldo a la mitad en un solo día. Como Binance dirige a los usuarios a esta dirección como sede del fondo, el rastro en cadena es el indicador público más claro de cuánta protección ofrece realmente este mecanismo. SAFU es el respaldo que creó la plataforma de intercambio de criptomonedas para absorber las pérdidas de los usuarios si la propia plataforma quiebra. El fondo existe desde hace años como una promesa permanente de que, pase lo que pase con la plataforma, un conjunto de activos separado respalda los saldos de los usuarios. Binance terminó de reestructurar ese fondo en febrero, cuando convirtió en bitcoin aproximadamente 1.000 millones de dólares que hasta entonces estaban depositados en monedas estables. La billetera quedó así con 15.000 BTC y, durante la mayor parte del año, la dirección permaneció inactiva, como una reserva HODL frente a una quiebra catastrófica de la plataforma. Las transferencias del 31 de octubre pusieron fin a esa quietud. A un precio de aproximadamente 77.000 dólares por bitcoin, lo que queda vale unos 580 millones de dólares, y las salidas son permanentes: una vez confirmadas en el registro de prueba de trabajo de Bitcoin, ni la plataforma ni nadie más puede devolver esas monedas al fondo. La conversión de febrero explica por qué esto es tan delicado: al trasladar la protección a bitcoin, su valor en dólares quedó ligado al mercado de la moneda. Un mercado al alza engrosa el fondo; uno a la baja reduce esa misma protección sin que se mueva una sola moneda. A 77.000 dólares por moneda, cada 1.000 BTC que aún quedan en la billetera representan unos 77 millones de dólares de cobertura.

• Binance's SAFU wallet fell to about 7,500 BTC after four Oct. 31 transactions halved its holdings.
• The remaining fund is worth roughly $580 million at a Bitcoin price near $77,000.
• SAFU held 15,000 BTC in February after Binance converted a $1 billion fund from stablecoins.
7,500 BTC Left in the SAFU Wallet
Binance has drained half of the bitcoin held in its emergency user-protection fund, and has not said when, or whether, the coins go back. The address Binance publishes as its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) wallet, 1BAuq7Vho2CEkVkUxbfU26LhwQjbCmWQkD, held just above 7,500 BTC as of Tuesday, according to on-chain records. Four outgoing transactions on Oct. 31 cut that balance in half within a single day. Because Binance points users to this address as the fund's home, the on-chain trail is the clearest public measure of how much protection the arrangement actually holds. SAFU is the backstop the crypto exchange created to absorb user losses if the platform itself fails. The fund dates back years as a standing promise that, whatever happens to the platform, a ring-fenced pool of assets sits behind user balances. Binance finished reshaping that pool in February, converting roughly $1 billion, until then parked in stablecoins, into bitcoin. That left the wallet with 15,000 BTC, and for most of the year the address did nothing but sit, functioning as a HODL reserve against a catastrophic platform failure. The Oct. 31 transfers ended that stillness. At a Bitcoin (BTC) price of roughly $77,000 per coin, what remains is worth about $580 million, and the outflows are permanent: once settled on Bitcoin's proof of work ledger, neither the exchange nor anyone else can pull those coins back into the fund. The February conversion is the reason for that sensitivity: moving the protection into bitcoin tied its dollar value to the coin's market. A rising market pads the fund; a falling one thins the same protection without a single coin moving. At $77,000 a coin, each 1,000 BTC still in the wallet represents about $77 million of cover.
A $6.34 Billion Bill, No Refill Date
The withdrawals trace to a hack. In its Oct. 31 announcement, Binance said it would make a partial SAFU deployment as one of three pools covering the $6.34 billion it set aside for user losses, alongside its corporate treasury and a portion of its futures insurance fund. The $6.34 billion total is the exchange's own accounting of what it owes; SAFU's slice of that bill is the part users can count on-chain. How the three sources divide the cost has not been published. The same statement pledged to restore the emergency fund to about $1 billion, but named no date, and Binance has not disclosed how much of the futures insurance pool was drawn on. The word partial matters: the deployment was described as partial, and half the coins are indeed still in the wallet. Even the $800 million floor in the fund's official SAFU FAQ is academic now. That document states Binance rebalances the reserve back to $1 billion if its value falls below $800 million “due to BTC price fluctuations,” a written trigger that covers a market decline, not a withdrawal. A fund halved by spending sits outside the rule the exchange itself wrote, and no mechanism exists for users to force a refill where spending is concerned. On paper the structure resembles a company maintaining a strategic Bitcoin reserve, except this reserve exists to absorb losses rather than appreciate, and the refill commitment is a promise, not a coded rule. Timing sharpens the picture: roughly $6.3 billion left Binance last week, an outflow wave the trading firm Wintermute tied to bitcoin's break below $80,000. A protection fund shrinking in the same window does little to steady that kind of market.
The practical read for users is that SAFU's remaining cover is whatever the on-chain balance says it is, about $580 million in bitcoin today, and nothing more until coins actually arrive at the wallet. The verifiable signal is equally simple: watch 1BAuq7Vho2CEkVkUxbfU26LhwQjbCmWQkD for incoming transfers, since Binance publishes that address precisely so the public can audit the fund. A refill to $1 billion would require adding roughly $420 million of bitcoin at recent prices, a purchase large enough to appear on-chain the day it happens. Until then, the protection available is the $580 million that remains, sitting in the wider Bitcoin market, denominated in an asset whose own price decides how far it stretches.