Binance's SAFU Fund Bitcoin Balance Halved; No Time Limit Set for Replenishment Rule

Binance's SAFU fund transferred 7,499 BTC (roughly $574.8 million at CoinGecko's $76,639 price) out of its public address on October 31, halving the fund's balance to about 7,500 BTC and leaving it roughly $225 million below Binance's self-set $800 million rebalancing line. The transfer, Binance's first SAFU outflow since April 2024, was used to help cover an estimated $6.3 billion shortfall from an October 30 hot wallet hack attributed by the FBI to North Korean group TraderTraitor, with about $3 billion already frozen on-chain. Binance has earmarked over $6.34 billion of its own funds for recovery, and coverage of affected assets has risen from 90% to about 95%, though the remaining 5% consists of lower-liquidity tokens outside the top ten. Notably, SAFU's stated rules only trigger a rebalance if the fund's market value falls below $800 million due to BTC price declines, with no deadline for replenishment after withdrawals; restoring the fund to its $1 billion target would require roughly 13,048 BTC, leaving a gap of about 5,548 BTC (~$425 million). Binance has committed to restoring SAFU to ~$1 billion without a timeline and hasn't disclosed how much of its contract insurance fund was used. Watch for the November 4 snapshot covering more tokens, with full zero-knowledge proof generation expected to take 40-50 hours, plus further withdrawal network re-openings after $2.57 billion in net outflows on November 2 (down from $6.1 billion the prior day).