In response to the collapse of FTX, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has released details of its cold wallet reserves, disclosing proof of digital asset holdings worth more than $69 billion.
Binance Publishes Proof of Reserves
On Thursday, November 10th, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the Founder and CEO of Binance, announced that his exchange remains committed to transparency, especially in light of the liquidity crunch faced by beleaguered crypto exchange FTX.
In accordance with its resolve to provide full transparency, Binance has published its Proof of Reserves, disclosing the cold wallet addresses and balances of the top six cryptos listed on the exchange.
As of November 10th, Binance held 475,000 BTC, 4.8 million Ether, 17.6 billion USDT, 601 million USDC, 58 million BNB. and approximately 21.7 billion of its own stablecoin, BUSD. The total reserves held by Binance, as of Thursday, stand at an approximate worth of $69 billion.
Binance Leads the Charge for Greater Transparency
The Proof of Reserves published by Binance represents the first step in increasing the transparency of exchanges. According to Binance, the primary objective is to create a Merkle Tree Proof of Funds, which will be shared with the community in the coming weeks. CZ tweeted:
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This is while we are waiting for the proof-of-reserves to finish. Waiting on a vendor that everyone uses. But it seems like may take weeks, we might try to find someone else.The Binance Merkle Tree will enable the exchange to store and process data of users’ funds i a efficient and secure manner. Binance further revealed that its secure asset fund for users (SAFU) has been topped up with an additional $1 billion.— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) November 10, 2022
On the Flipside
- Some users on Reddit have questioned the Proof of Reserve published by Binance, highlighting that Monero (XMR) was not on the list despite being available for purchase on the exchange.
Why You Should Care
Through the publication of its Proof of Reserves, Binance is looking to lead a push for improved transparency in order to safeguard against different security risks, such as those highlighted in the case of the FTX debacle.
Read more on the Merkle Tree below:
Top CEXes Promise Transparency with Merkle Tree Proof of Reserves
Find out about the push for increased transparency in:
Nine Leading Crypto Exchanges Commit to Proof of Reserve Amidst FTX’s Liquidity Crunch