Binance Shifts SAFU Reserve Entirely Into Bitcoin

The exchange said it will use treasury reserves to replenish the fund if its value falls below $800 million. Binance is also working to complete restitution for South Korea’s GoFi users this year after regulatory approval of its acquisition of Gopax, with the crypto for repayments already set aside under third-party custody and reflecting the original asset amounts lost. The exchange is still awaiting additional approvals from South Korean authorities before distributions can begin.

Binance Shifts SAFU Into Bitcoin

Binance is re-denominating its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) entirely into Bitcoin over the next 30 days. In an open letter to the crypto community, Binance framed the move as a statement of conviction that Bitcoin is the core long-term asset of the crypto ecosystem rather than just another trading product. The exchange said it will maintain SAFU at roughly $1 billion and will use its own treasury reserves to top up the fund if volatility pushes its value below $800 million.

SAFU launched in 2018 and was funded through a portion of Binance trading fees. It is designed to reimburse users in “extreme” scenarios like hacks or critical platform failures. The fund was used in 2019 after a security breach resulted in the theft of around 7,000 BTC, with Binance covering all of the affected user losses without reducing account balances. 

What is SAFU (Source: Binance)

Since then, the exchange consistently positioned SAFU as a central pillar of its trust and risk-management framework, as user assets are held on a fully backed 1:1 basis and the fund itself is stored separately in cold wallets. Binance plans to stand by the industry through market cycles and uncertainty, and future reviews could consider allocations to other “core assets,” including BNB.

The shift is an evolution in SAFU’s composition. In 2024, Binance moved the fund’s stablecoin exposure from BUSD to USDC after the wind-down of its branded stablecoin, due to liquidity and reliability concerns while keeping the fund dollar-pegged. The latest transition removes stablecoins altogether, aligning user protection reserves with Bitcoin as a long-term store of value. 

Once completed, the roughly $1 billion allocation will equate to more than 12,000 BTC at current prices, pushing Binance’s total Bitcoin holdings well beyond those of publicly listed firms like Tesla and Trump Media. Binance said the SAFU Bitcoin will be custodied in its licensed clearing house regulated by Abu Dhabi Global Market, and that users can verify the fund’s balance on-chain as the conversion is completed within the coming month.

Top public Bitcoin treasury companies (Source: BitcoinTreasuries.NET)

Binance Targets GoFi Repayments in 2026

Binance is also aiming to complete restitution for South Korea’s GoFi users this year, which will resolve one of the longest-running liquidity crises in the country’s crypto sector. In a recent interview, Binance Head of APAC SB Seker said there is broad alignment among users, regulators, and other stakeholders to finally close the chapter after years of delays.

GoFi was a DeFi lending service operated under South Korean exchange Gopax, and it  froze withdrawals in 2023 after its partner Genesis Global Capital halted withdrawals and later filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The fallout left thousands of South Korean investors unable to access their funds and triggered a prolonged regulatory and operational standoff. Binance stepped in by acquiring a majority stake in Gopax in February of 2023, with the stated intention of injecting capital to make GoFi users whole, but South Korean regulators delayed approving the deal until late last year.

After receiving regulatory approval, Binance confirmed that the crypto earmarked for restitution is already set aside under third-party custody and that it will soon disclose the wallet address publicly. According to a notice from Gopax, the wallet contains 11 different cryptocurrencies mirroring the exact quantities lost by GoFi users, including 775.11 BTC, 5,766.62 ETH, and 706,184.46 USDC. 

Rather than compensating users based on fiat values at the time of the freeze, the restitution reflects the original crypto amounts. This means that beneficiaries stand to gain from the appreciation in assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum since 2023.

BTC’s price action over the past 3 years (Source: CoinCodex)

While the assets are ready, Binance still requires additional approvals from multiple South Korean government agencies before distributions can begin. The exchange is also finalizing a repayment structure designed to minimize operational and transaction costs for all parties involved. Seker said the goal is to complete the process within the year, ending a situation that has weighed on users, regulators, and Binance’s own ambitions in the country.

Once repayments are finalized, Binance plans to focus on stabilizing and upgrading Gopax by applying its global technical and security standards. Broader operational changes or a potential rebrand under the Binance name are still under consideration but are not yet confirmed. In the longer term, the company sees growth opportunities in South Korea across stablecoins, real-world asset tokenization, and institutional crypto adoption.