Binance Now Has Almost 600,000 Bitcoins Worth $9.6 Billion – Largest BTC Owner In The World?
The Bitcoin balance of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has more than doubled in the past 10 days, approaching 600,000.
According to data from crypto analytics platform Coinglass, Binance currently has over 575,000 BTC coins, having added more than 137,011 coins in the past week and a total of 67,347 BTC coins in the past month.
With Bitcoin currently hovering around $16,000, Binance’s stack of BTC is worth over $9.2 billion. The recent increase in Binance’s holdings of BTC comes as apparently consumer confidence in other smaller exchanges continues to deteriorate following the unprecedented crash of FTX.
Coinbase Pro, Bitfinex, Gemini and Kraken are the second-fourth largest holders of Bitcoin after Binance, according to Coinglass, with 528,900, 345,597, 153,212 and 70,622 coins respectively. Among the top five exchanges, Binance is the only one with a positive net Bitcoin flow in the past week.
Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume. The exchange has been boldly in the news lately, especially due to its partial involvement in the FTX saga. The exchange initially signed a non-binding agreement to buy troubled FTX, but walked away from the deal a day later.
What is proof of reserves and why do exchanges need to share it?
The notable collapse of FTX, once the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange that earned a reputation as crypto’s savior during the recent crypto meltdown, led many in the crypto industry to voice concerns about the reliability of centralized actors.
In an effort to counter this skepticism, crypto leaders began sharing proof of reserves. Proof of reserves uses Merkle Trees to capture data and obtain a set of fingerprints that allow users to verify that their money was properly audited by a third party.
Over the past couple of days, some of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges have shared their proof of reserves, revealing how much and which cryptocurrencies they store on behalf of their clients. Binance was among the very first to do so, followed by Crypto.com, Bybit and Huobi.
However, as reported, crypto investment firm Grayscale has refused to share its proof-of-reserves citing “security concerns”. In a recent Twitter thread, the company said that major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, which is used by Grayscale as a custodian, frequently performs “on-chain validation.”
However, the move has sparked speculation about the financial health of Grayscale. “I was not worried about GBTC solvency until I read this statement, please explain how proof of reserve is a security risk?” said one Twitter user.
