Binance has completed a $1 billion Bitcoin allocation for its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), reinforcing its commitment to holding BTC as the fund’s primary reserve asset.
On Thursday, the exchange purchased an additional $304 million worth of Bitcoin, finalizing the full $1 billion conversion into BTC for the SAFU wallet, according to blockchain data from Arkham.
The emergency fund now holds 15,000 Bitcoin valued at more than $1 billion, acquired at an average aggregate cost basis of approximately $67,000 per coin, Binance said in a post on X Thursday.
“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.
Binance first revealed plans on Jan. 30 to convert its $1 billion user protection fund into Bitcoin, initially outlining a 30-day timeline for the purchases. The exchange completed the acquisitions in less than two weeks.
Binance added that it would rebalance the SAFU fund if market volatility causes its value to fall below $800 million.
Crypto Sentiment Hits Record Low
The conversion comes amid persistently weak market sentiment.
Investor confidence deteriorated further after Bitcoin briefly fell below $60,000 on Feb. 5. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index dropped to a reading of five on Thursday — its lowest level on record — indicating extreme fear among market participants, according to data from Alternative.me.
The index is a multifactorial measure of crypto market sentiment.
Top-performing traders — often categorized as “smart money” — are also positioning for further downside in the crypto market.
According to data from crypto analytics platform Nansen, smart money wallets held a cumulative net short position of $105 million in Bitcoin. They were also net short across most major cryptocurrencies, with the exception of Avalanche’s AVAX token, which recorded $10.5 million in cumulative net long positions.
Bitcoin’s recent correction pushed a substantial portion of the circulating supply into unrealized losses, equivalent to roughly 16% of the asset’s market capitalization — the largest pain point since the collapse of algorithmic stablecoin issuer Terra in May 2022, according to Glassnode in a post on X Monday.
Despite the sharp downturn, there are early indications that market conditions may be stabilizing, said Dessislava Ianeva, a dispatch analyst at digital asset platform Nexo.
“Derivative positioning remains cautious,” Ianeva said. “Funding rates are neutral to slightly negative, reflecting muted demand for leverage, while open interest measured in native BTC terms has returned to early-February levels. This suggests stabilization rather than the start of another expansion phase.”
