Binance has accomplished a $1 billion Bitcoin transition for its emergency fund and committed to holding Bitcoin as a core reserve.
According to Arkham data, Binance purchased a further $304 million value of Bitcoin (BTC) on Thursday, completing the conversion of $1 billion into Bitcoin for its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) wallet.
The fund now holds 15,000 Bitcoin value over $1 billion, acquired at a median total cost of $67,000 per coin, Binance said in a Thursday X post.
“With the SAFU Fund now fully invested in Bitcoin, we reiterate our belief in BTC as a key long-term reserve asset.”
The latest BTC tranche got here three days after Binance's previous $300 million acquisition on Monday.
Binance ROW Fund wallet. Source: Arkham
The exchange first announced on January 30 that it could convert its $1 billion User Protection Fund into Bitcoin, initially promising a 30-day window for the acquisitions, which were accomplished in lower than two weeks.
The exchange said it could rebalance the fund if volatility pushed its value below $800 million.
Crypto investor sentiment plummets to its lowest level on record
The move comes as overall market sentiment stays deeply negative.
After Bitcoin's transient correction below $60,000 on February 5, sentiment took one other hit, plunging to 5 on Thursday – its lowest level on record – indicating extreme fear amongst investors, based on data from alternative.me.
The index is a multifactorial measure of crypto market sentiment.
Fear and Greed Index. Source: Alternative.me
The industry's leading traders by way of returns, who’re considered “smart money”, are also hedging themselves against further downward movements within the crypto market.
According to crypto intelligence platform Nansen, smart money traders collectively held a net short position in Bitcoin of $105 million and were net short in most major cryptocurrencies, with Avalanche (AVAX) being the one notable exception, recording a net long exposure of $10.5 million.
Smart money traders position top tokens via the Hyperliquid exchange. Source: Nansen
Bitcoin's correction has also cost a major supply of the token, with a lack of 16% of Bitcoin's market cap, marking the largest pain point markets have seen because the implosion of algorithmic stablecoin issuer Terra in May 2022, Glassnode wrote in a Monday post.
But one silver lining to the correction is that the market structure is showing early signs of stabilization, based on Dessislava Ianeva, dispatch analyst at digital asset platform Nexo.
“Derivatives positioning stays cautious. Funding rates are neutral to barely negative, reflecting subdued leverage demand, while open interest in native BTC terms has returned to early February levels, suggesting a stabilization reasonably than a renewed expansion phase,” the analyst told Cointelegraph.
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