Binance Moves BTC to New Cold Wallet: Funds SAFU

Crypto exchange giant Binance has moved at least nine figures worth of its Bitcoin to a new blockchain address, the company announced on Monday. 

The move has not affected the safety of user funds, which remain locked away with Binance in cold storage. 

Massive Move From Binance’s Wallet

According to data from Blockchain.com, Binance’s new cold storage wallet (as referenced by Binance) received 15,000 BTC at 05:47 am on Monday, worth $399 million. 

The transaction included a much larger transfer of 117,000 BTC from a pre-existing Binance cold wallet address to another new address, worth over $3 billion in total. Data from Bitinfocharts reflects a total decrease of 130,000 BTC from the exchange’s cold wallet this morning.

Today, #Binance will be moving funds from our #BTC cold wallet to our new address – 1Pzaqw98PeRfyHypfqyEgg5yycJRsENrE7t.

If you see any significant movements of #BTC from our wallets today, that's why.

Funds are SAFU.

— Binance (@binance) June 19, 2023

According to Coinglass, Binance currently has the largest Bitcoin balance out of any exchange, standing at 510,425 BTC in total. Meanwhile, Coinbase Pro boasts a figure of 486,568 BTC. 

Both exchanges were sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this month for multiple securities law violations.

The former allegedly “commingled” user assets with its American subsidiary, Binance.US, within Merti Peak Limited – an entity owned by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ). The SEC sought to freeze all assets on Binance.US as a result, but was later denied by the judge presiding over the case. 

Reuters claimed last month that Binance had been mixing user deposits with corporate funds within its bank accounts at the now-defunct Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank. However, Binance said that the deposits in question were moved for the purpose of conversion into BUSD stablecoins inside user accounts. 

Binance’s Questionable Proof of Reserves

After the failure of rival exchange FTX in November, Binance promised to implement “proof of reserves” – a blockchain-based auditing system for verifying that the exchange actually possesses its users’ crypto assets. 

While the company briefly released a report in December to verify its customers’ Bitcoin balances were 101% backed, the company behind the audit quickly backpedaled and distanced itself from all crypto companies.

Former Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, whose exchange also uses a proof of reserves system, criticized Binance’s proof of reserves for having numerous holes.

Unlike Binance, Coinbase is subject to audits by ‘Big Four’ accounting firm Deloitte, since it is a publicly-traded company.