Binance Spends Half Its SAFU Bitcoin to Cover $6.3B Hack Fallout

Binance's SAFU Bitcoin wallet is now half its former size. The exchange moved 7,499 BTC on Saturday, confirming it was a partial deployment of its Secure Asset Fund for Users. By Monday, the wallet held about 7,500 BTC—worth $583 million—down from roughly 15,000 BTC before the transfer.

The move comes after Thursday's $6.3 billion hack, the largest theft in crypto history. Binance suspended withdrawals while it scrambled to replace stolen assets. The FBI attributed the attack to North Korea's TraderTraitor, according to Cointelegraph. Binance began reopening withdrawals in phases on Sunday and said it had replenished about 95% of affected assets, up from 90% a day earlier.

To cover the losses, Binance is drawing on its corporate treasury, SAFU, and part of its futures insurance fund. SAFU's policy says the fund gets rebalanced if its market value drops below $800 million due to BTC price swings, restoring it to $1 billion. But the policy doesn't set a timeline for replenishing funds after a security incident. Binance didn't immediately answer Cointelegraph's questions about SAFU's remaining reserves or plans to top it up.

On the transparency front, Binance said users can now verify their balances against its Saturday proof-of-reserves snapshot. The exchange completed the cryptographic proof, which shows customer holdings in 10 cryptocurrencies—including Bitcoin, Ether, and USDT—are backed at least 1:1. Another snapshot covering more tokens is set for Wednesday, with the proof expected to take another 40 to 50 hours.

Binance is still buying up the remaining, less-liquid tokens through market and over-the-counter transactions. The exchange's next steps will be watched closely as it works to restore confidence after the massive hack.