Today, on April 18, 2024, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, experienced a massive downside momentum of over 4.5% in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, Lookonchain, an on-chain analytics firm, made a post on X (previously Twitter) stating that the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, deposited a massive 16,277 Bitcoin (BTC) worth $1 billion and a massive 1.36 million Binance Coin (BNB) worth $748 million into a hot wallet.
Binance deposits massive BTC and BNB into hot wallet
However, Lookonchain also highlights that following the massive deposit of BTC and BNB into the wallet, Binance withdrew a massive $1 billion USDC to the SAFU (Secure Asset Fund for User) fund wallet. SAFU is a monetary fund created by Binance exchange, holding 10% of all trading fees to compensate customers in case of any hack or exploit.
If we look at the historical record of Binance’s SAFU wallet, on January 29, 2024, March 17, 2023, and November 9, 2022, Binance withdrew a massive 1.36 million BNB worth $500 million and 16,277 BTC worth $453.25 million from the hot wallet as SAFU assets. At the time of these massive BTC and BNB withdrawals, these SAFU assets were worth nearly $1 billion ($998.5 million). However, today, the value of these assets rose by 76%, currently standing at $1.75 billion.
Why Binance has converted its SAFU assets into USDC?
Following the recent withdrawal of BTC and BNB, Binance published a report stating that they have converted their SAFU assets to USDC for better stability. Now, instead of holding BNB, USDT, and TUSD, they have 1 billion USDC. Additionally, they’ve moved all BTC from a reserved address back to the hot wallet.
Besides, despite the overall cryptocurrency market experiencing massive downside momentum, with a 3.5% decrease in the last 24 hours, the 24-hour volume increased by 2%, indicating investors’ interest in the cryptocurrency market despite the significant fall.
At the time of writing, top cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Dogecoin, and others have experienced massive falls in their price. In the last 24 hours, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Dogecoin experienced 4.5%, 4%, 7%, and 6% of downside momentum, respectively.
