Binance’s Reserve Reports: Exchange Buys Bitcoin and Ethereum

• Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has published its most recent Proof of Reserves (PoR) on August 1st, providing transparency into its crypto reserves.
• The latest reserve audit demonstrates that Binance holds a sufficient amount of crypto and cash to cover its users’ funds.
• In September, Binance began converting customers’ USDC to Binance USD, but at that time, it still held a significant amount of USDC in its reserves.

Binance exchange has released its latest proof of reserve reports; The ratio of Binance’s net balances to its customers’ net balances was over 100% for all assets.

Binance Exchange Publishes Reserve Reports

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has released its most recent Proof of Reserves (PoR) on August 1st, ensuring transparency into its crypto reserves. However, the movement of USD Coin (USDC) reserves during Silvergate’s collapse drew much attention and became a topic of discussion on X (formerly known as Twitter).

The latest reserve audit shows that Binance holds a sufficient amount of crypto and cash to cover its users’ funds. The ratio of Binance’s net balances to its customers’ net balances is over 100% for all assets, as shown in the snapshot below.

While the report presents a healthy financial state for Binance, the movement of USDC reserves after the Silvergate collapse and the disruption of the stablecoin’s dollar peg were the main topics of debate. The PoR indicates that Binance’s USDC balance dropped from $3.4 billion on March 1st to $23.9 million on May 1st.

In September, Binance began converting customers’ USDC to Binance USD, but at that time, it still held a significant amount of USDC in its reserves. On-chain data indicates that shortly after Silvergate collapsed on March 12th, Binance began converting its USDC reserves into Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Binance Acquires Bitcoin and Ethereum

On-chain analyst Aleksandar Djakovic noted that between March 12th and May 1st, Binance acquired around 100,000 BTC and 550,000 ETH, totaling an excess of USDC worth $3.5 billion.

Discussions around Binance’s USDC reserves became particularly heated after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong mentioned during the company’s Q2 earnings call that Binance had sold its USDC for another stablecoin.

PoRs have become popular in verifying and publicly sharing crypto exchanges’ assets for transparency, especially following the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange. Despite claims of their founders’ financial well-being up until the collapse in November 2022, FTX’s collapse led to increased calls for transparency in the crypto ecosystem.