Binance’s Bitcoin Reserves Are 101% Backed, Confirms Auditor

An independent global auditor has confirmed that all Bitcoin circulating on Binance – the world’s largest crypto exchange – is fully accounted for.

The audit allows any user of the exchange to confirm the safety of their Bitcoin balance using on-chain data. 

• As verified by the Mazars Veriitas auditing service, Binance’s Bitcoin was 101% collateralized as of November 22nd. That means it holds Bitcoin slightly in excess of its liabilities/customer assets, which amount to 575,742 BTC. 
• The figure matches that provided by Binance upon the initial reveal of its proof of reserves last month, which reported net Bitcoin assets of 582,485 BTC. 
• Such Bitcoin includes that circulating on the native Bitcoin blockchain, as well as on Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Binance Smart Chain. 
• Proof of reserves has grown in popularity after the collapse of FTX, which has made the crypto community far leerier of crypto exchanges lending out customer deposits. The defunct exchange’s former boss, Sam Bankman-Fried, has now confirmed that customers were effectively trading fake Bitcoin on the platform. 
• Merkle-tree proofs are intended to provide blockchain-based evidence that user assets are not being tampered with. Mazars’ auditing page provides a tool with which users may paste their Merkle hash from their Binance to check their on-chain balance.
• However, as Kraken CEO Jesse Powell argued last month, Merkle Tree proofs are not enough to prove an exchange’s solvency, as they provide no information about a given firm’s liabilities. As such, the tool must be coupled with a professional audit of those debts to guarantee the entity’s financial health. 
• Kraken provided its own Proof of Reserves (alongside proof of liabilities) shortly after FTX’s bankruptcy, allowing users to verify that their individual accounts were audited.