Crypto exchange insurance funds surge more than $1B amid bull market
Many crypto exchanges hold Bitcoin as part of their user'insurance fund, which has since appreciated significantly in value.
The top crypto exchange insurance funds have surged in value by mo $1 billion amid the ongoing crypto bull market.
As of April 3, the Bitcoin (BTC), Binance Coin (BNB), Tether (USDT), and TrueUSD (TUSD) balances constituting crypto exchange Binance's Secure Asset Fund for Users' (SAFU) gas surpassed $2.03 billion, compared to their initial balance of $1 billion in January 2022. Similarly, crypto exchange Bitget's initial $300 million protection fund, launched in November 2022, has since surged to $612 million due to the appreciation of its Bitcoin holdings. In the past year alone, Bitcoin has gained 136% and BNB 79.36% as part of a crypto bull run.
While most exchanges have some form of insurance protection for users, only Binance and Bitget have since disclosed their on-chain addresses. In 2019, crypto exchange Huobi, now HTX, announced a 20,000 BTC ($1.32 billion) reserve in an independent address "to cope with extreme security accidents." It is unclear if the exchange held the balance until now. In addition, the HTX group of companies suffered several exploits last year to the tune of millions of dollars lost.
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