Will Binance’s latest moves be bad for Bitcoin, BNB, and USDC?

• Binance transfers BTC, BNB and USDT to USDC for its Secure Asset Fund for Users.
• Ther price of BTC plummeted, while BNB’s price remained the same.

Binance [BNB] has been through an array of troubles over the last few months, ranging from regulatory scrutiny to mass exodus of its employees.

Despite this, the exchange has remained resilient and has continued to make moves to safeguard its users.

It’s all SAFU

Recently, Binance announced that it would be all of its SAFU (Secure Asset Fund for Users) from Bitcoin [BTC], BNB, and USDT and TUSD to USDC.

According to Lookonchain data, Binance first transferred a mix of cryptocurrencies, including 16,277 BTC (around $1 billion) and 1.36 million BNB (around $748.62 million), to a hot wallet.

These assets were then swapped for $1 billion worth of USDC, which now reside in the SAFU fund wallet.

Data also showed subsequent withdrawals of the remaining BTC and BNB from the hot wallet on the 29th of January 2024, the 9th of November 2022, and the 17th of March 2023.

Though these withdrawn SAFU assets totaled $998.5 million at the time, their value has since impressively climbed to $1.757 billion, reflecting a significant 76% increase.

Source: X

The news of Binance converting to a stablecoin might lead some traders to believe the exchange is bearish on crypto in general. This could cause a temporary dip in both BTC and BNB prices due to short-term selling.

At press time, BTC was trading at $61,170.62 and its price had fallen by 4.26% in the last 24 hours. The price dip occurred 24 hours before the date for halving.

As the halving date inched closer, so did the volatility around BTC. The volume at which BTC was trading at had also grown and had surged by 7.78% in the last 24 hours.

Source: Santiment

BNB remained unaffected

BNB’s price, however, remained relatively stable. At press time, BNB was trading at $542.74 and its price had fallen by 0.24% in the last 24 hours.

Despite this, the sentiment around the BNB token continued to decline. AMBCrypto’s analysis of Santiment’s data revealed that the weighted sentiment for BNB had fallen significantly.

This indicated that negative comments around BNB had outnumbered the positive ones over the last few days. The rise in negative comments can impact BNB negatively going forward.

Source: Santiment

Read Binance Coin’s [BNB] Price Prediction 2024-25

However, the one token that could benefit from Binance’s move would be USDC.

Binance’s decision to turn its SAFU funds to USDC would be a vote of confidence for the stablecoin and may just give it the much-needed boost required to compete with USDT.

Source: CoinMarketCap