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What is a Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU)?
The Secure Asset Fund for Users is an insurance fund for users of the Binance exchange to protect against losses due to breaches.
Binance committed to contributing 10% of the exchange’s trading fees to the fund, beginning on 14 July, 2018. As of January 2024, the fund holds nearly $1.3 billion in assets in three cold wallets.
The SAFU was intended to insure against potential breaches, with the funds reserved to help compensate users in the event of a loss stemming from a breach.
Assets for the funds comprise four cryptocurrencies:
Secure Asset Fund for Users: Wallets and Balances
| Assets | Wallet Address | 02/2024 Balance in USD |
| BTC | 1BAuq7Vho2CEkVkUxbfU26LhwQjbCmWQkD | $687,173,276 |
| BNB, BSC-USD | 0x4B16c5dE96EB2117bBE5fd171E4d203624B014aa | BNB: $408,658,565.19
BSC-USD: $99,975,204.05 |
| TUSD | 0x4B16c5dE96EB2117bBE5fd171E4d203624B014aa | $98,584,700.00 |
| Total | – | $1,294,391,745.24 |
Binance secures the funds in cold wallets, keeping the private keys offline.
On May 07, 2019, Binance suffered a hack in which 7,074 BTC was sent from an exchange hot wallet to a single wallet address. Posts on news sites at the time indicated that Binance would cover the loss with the SAFU fund. However, none of the cold wallets show outgoing transactions. Posts on Binance.com regarding the hack have since been deleted.
In November 2022, Binance topped up the fund to adjust for losses in value during the bear market, adding more than $250 million worth of crypto assets to the fund.
The Origin of SAFU
While SAFU is an acronym for Secure Asset Fund for Users, the term has become part of the crypto lexicon.
The term evolved over time, however, initially starting with former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), who tweeted the now-iconic phrase during unscheduled maintenance at Binance.
“Funds are safe”
In 2018, a creator named Bizonacci uploaded a tongue-in-cheek YouTube video entitled Funds Are Safu, referencing the Secure Asset Fund for Users.
The term “SAFU” caught on, echoed by projects large and small following a security incident or any type of uncertainty. SAFU was even adopted by Binance’s CZ, who repeated the phrase in a tweet that announced his stepping down as the head of Binance, “Funds are SAFU!”
FAQs
Where did SAFU come from?
Is Binance still safe?
References
- What is SAFU or Safu Binance? (Binance)
- SAFU Fund (Blockchain.com)
- Address (Bscscan)
- Address (Etherscan)
- Binance Hack (Blockchain.com)
- Topping up SAFU to $1B (Binance)
- Funds Are Safu (Youtube)
- CZ 🔶 BNB (X)
