Binance has said that it will convert roughly $1 billion held in stablecoins within its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) into Bitcoin (BTC), with the process set to finish within 30 days. The move shifts the exchange’s emergency insurance reserve back into BTC and comes as Binance faces renewed scrutiny over market influence, balance sheet practices, and leadership ties to former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. Binance Outlines SAFU Shift as Part of Broader Transparency Push In an open letter posted on X on January 30, Binance said the SAFU fund will be fully rebalanced into Bitcoin and topped back up to $1 billion if its value falls below $800 million due to price declines. The exchange added that the fund will undergo regular rebalancing based on market value. SAFU was launched in 2018 as an insurance pool to cover user losses during extreme events such as hacks. In April 2024, Binance converted the fund entirely into USDC, a move it framed at the time as a stability measure. That conversion made SAFU equivalent to about 3% of USDC’s circulating supply, according to Binance disclosures published at the time. The latest change reverses that approach. Binance said it views BTC as the long-term store of value for the crypto ecosystem and framed the decision as aligning SAFU with that belief. “We believe Bitcoin is the foundational asset of this ecosystem and the premier long-term store of value,” the announcement read. It also highlighted internal metrics from 2025, including $48 million recovered from incorrect deposits and $6.69 billion in scam-related losses prevented through risk controls. Reaction from the community was swift. Commentator Garrett called the move “a direct capital injection into the market” and “what responsible builders do.” Binance’s Position and Prevailing Sentiment The announcement landed as new data from CryptoQuant showed that Binance accounted for about 41% of spot trading volume among the top 10 exchanges in 2025, with similarly high shares in Bitcoin perpetual futures and stablecoin reserves. It also follows recent public debates involving former CEO Changpeng Zhao. On January 28, he defended his personal buy-and-hold investment philosophy after social media criticism, clarifying that the strategy “obviously does not apply to every coin.” Some community members, like The White Whale, expressed broader frustration, noting timelines were “filled with people fed up with CZ and the Binance cartel,” linking the sentiment to the onset of a bear market. The Binance co-founder, who stepped down as CEO in 2023, weighed in, stating , “FUD doesn’t hurt the target… FUD hurts the market (i.e. everyone).” He added that, based on his knowledge, Binance is “a large net hoarder” of assets, and pushed back against claims that the exchange or its leadership sell heavily during downturns. In a post on X, he explained that the firm converts only part of its revenue to cover expenses and remains a net holder of crypto. He also pointed to the presence of a global regulator with oversight over exchange activity. The post Binance to Convert $1B SAFU Fund From Stablecoins to Bitcoin appeared first on CryptoPotato .
