Binance is the world’s largest crypto and blockchain infrastructure provider. Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Founder and CEO of Binance, announced on Twitter that it had upgraded its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), valued at $1 Billion.
Binance’s mission to safeguard user interests
Binance launched the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) as an emergency insurance fund in July 2018 to protect users’ interests. They had also pledged a proportion of trading fees to expand it significantly during the launch.
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Founder and CEO of Binance, commented: “At Binance we always claimed ‘funds are safe’, and now the Binance Secure Asset Fund size functions as an excellent precaution as well as protection for consumers against such unexpected circumstances. Coupled with our state-of-the-art security, we are convinced that our user’s interests are well-protected.
CZ added:
“Transparency is a crucial aspect of developing trust, which is why we are revealing our insurance fund wallet address. We appeal on all centralized exchanges to do the same since it will benefit the whole ecosystem and signal to governments, regulators, and critical stakeholders our collective commitment to protect trust, integrity, and transparency in the crypto ecosystem.”
Binance began donating 10 percent of all trading fees to offer insurance for any security breaches, starting from its launch time in 2018. They will also continue to observe the size of the SAFU to ensure the fund size stays enough to defend users’ interests.
The Secure Asset Fund was valued at US$1 billion based on the opening price on January 29, 2022. The value of the fund will fluctuate depending on the market conditions. The funds are stored on transparent wallet addresses one and two. The fund generally consists of BNB, BUSD, and BTC. Funds were consolidated and transferred to the wallet on January 29, 2022.
Crypto exchanges and their saftety concerns
Crypto exchanges have always fallen victim to hackers. Users have been skeptical of the safety of the funds ever since the heists grew to a staggering $14 billion in valuation in 2021. Crypto.com, one of the largest crypto exchanges, also admitted that over $30 million were stolen by hackers.
Binance recently froze accounts of 281 Nigerian users. Their decision to create an emergency fund is a great initiative that can influence other prominent exchanges to take the same step to protect the interest and funds of investors.