In light of the FTX liquidity crisis and the near-acquisition by Binance, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao assured his community that his network would provide full transparency on asset holdings.
On Nov. 10, Binance published a new page titled “Proof of Assets” on which all details are available of its on-chain activity for its hot and cold wallet addresses. This comes only two days after the initial tweet from CZ on Nov. 8 in which he pledged to create a proof-of-reserve mechanism to ensure “full transparency” to the community.
Binance released an official statement on the new page in which it says it’s the next step in its “commitment to transparency and fostering trust in the ecosystem,” but also that it is only a starting point.
The final goal is to create a Merkle Tree proof of funds, which will be shared with the community in the following weeks, according to the exchange.
“Our objective is to allow users of our platform to be aware and make informed decisions that are aligned with their financial goals.”
The announcement also included a snapshot of hot and cold wallet addresses from Nov. 10, 2022 at approximately 12:00 am UTC.
In the meantime, here is a snapshot of our hot and cold wallet addresses taken on November 10, 2022 at 12:00am UTC.
Networks included: BTC, ETH, BSC, BNB, TRX.#BTC – 475K BTC $ETH – 4.8M ETH$USDT – 17.6B USDT#BUSD – 21.7B BUSD$USDC – 601M USDC#BNB – 58M BNB
— Binance (@binance) November 10, 2022
Additionally, the announcement reiterated that the company’s Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) has been topped at $1 billion. The initial statement came in a tweet from CZ on Nov. 9 and was said to be done “in light of recent price fluctuations.”
Users on social media responded to the publicized numbers, with Reddit users worrying about not seeing Monero (XMR) listed on the new Proof of Assets page but still being available for purchase through the exchange.
Many users across platforms including Twitter and Reddit have said it’s a good start but that reliability tests will be needed.
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As the market fumbles in response to the FTX–Binance incident, other crypto platforms have voiced their support of proof-of-reserve mechanisms for their own communities.
In a tweet on Nov. 10, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said he believes that it should be necessary for crypto platforms to publicly share their proof of reserves. Moreover, Marszalek said the platform will soon be publishing its audited proof of reserves.
Additionally, both OKX and KuCoin released statements on Twitter in which the platforms also committed to publicizing proof of reserves in the coming months.