FTX’s bankruptcy in November 2022 marked the back and forth of the digital asset ecosystem. The world’s third-largest exchange is also a structure based on illegal commingling of customer funds, exacerbated by the holding of illiquid and inflated assets primarily through FTT’s proprietary tokens, and artificial overvaluation contributed to its bankruptcy when the bank run occurred.
FTX’s collapse exposed fraud orchestrated by CEO Sam Bankman Fried, costing users and investors millions of dollars.
This caused a crash in the Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency markets. Marks one of the low points of the so-called “crypto winter”. At the beginning of November 2022, BTC was trading close to $20,000. After the exchange crash, the price fell, reaching a level of nearly $16,000 at the end of the month.
Related to this, companies like BlockFi and Genesis that held funds in FTX or were dependent on its ecosystem also followed that path and went bankrupt.
This historical trauma has made market participants highly sensitive and quick to react to any signs of fraud on centralized platforms. Indeed, this specter of bankruptcy is once again looming over the exchange platform landscape following recent events.
Accusations against Binance today
After a strong market correction on October 10, 2025; Causing large-scale liquidations and high volatility of Bitcoin, Criticism has been directed at Binance, the world’s largest Bitcoin and virtual currency exchange.
Various market participants and users have pointed out suspected fraud. For example, they accuse the platform of manually adjusting settlement records to exclude some affected people from promised compensation.
In addition to this, there are historical accusations against Binance, for example the transparency of the list of new digital assets, and also criticisms about the possibility of favoring certain projects or eliminating competition.
According to a report by CriptoNoticias, these accusations motivated some users to close their Binance accounts and liquidate their holdings in BNB, the platform’s native cryptocurrency.
However, in order to address doubts and strengthen user protection in a situation of persistent FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt), Binance is in the process of fully converting its Safe Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) to Bitcoin. At the end of January 2026, the platform announced plans to convert $1 billion of SAFU funds into Bitcoin in 30 days.
But beyond corporate moves and safety promises, the real answer to the question of whether Binance will face a similar fate to FTX lies not in its statements, but in the immutability of its distributed ledger records.
This week, the first movement was recorded with a transfer of 1,315 BTC worth approximately $100 million to the SAFU Fund address.
Binance data tells a different story
There are legitimate questions about the transparency of the listing and its response to volatile events like the one that occurred in October 2025, but the available data does not point to a bankruptcy scenario similar to FTX.
In contrast to FTX’s bankruptcy, which was partially caused by its heavy reliance on illiquid tokens like FTT, Binance has historically held liquid and widely accepted currencies in its reserves, primarily BTC, USDC, and BNB. There is no evidence of systematic misuse of customer funds or manipulation of reserve structure.
Ki Young Ju, CEO of data provider CryptoQuant, responded sarcastically to critics:FUD person«— Despite efforts to cause panic, Binance records minimal Bitcoin outflows. “They have caused net outflows of $600 million, which is a whopping 0.3% of total reserves,” Yonju pointed out.
By comparison, during the FTX collapse, outflows amounted to -12% of the platform’s reserves, reflecting mass panic and directly contributing to the bankruptcy.
Binance’s graph of Bitcoin reserves shows consistency over time. Despite the FTX collapse in late 2022, which saw massive outflows and significant fluctuations in reserves, Binance maintained a high level and withheld users’ assets.
In a separate message, the executive clarified that he did not receive payment for these publications. “It’s just frustrating to see baseless nonsense,” he said.
However, it is important to note that this on-chain data primarily reflects assets stored on the platform. These do not indicate the company’s liabilities, such as debts or obligations with third parties, which could theoretically exceed assets if an opaque financial structure exists. Therefore, while the reserve figures are encouraging, they should not be considered conclusive and irrefutable evidence of solvency and total liquidity.
Furthermore, Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, indicated that Binance holds approximately 659,000 BTC, essentially unchanged from 657,000 BTC at the end of 2025. This amount corresponds to an increase of 7% compared to the annual minimum recorded on July 10, 2025.suggesting that there was no significant decline in reserves during the recent market correction.
The usual lesson: self-control
This episode highlights the risks inherent in centralized exchanges, even the largest ones. No matter how robust the reservation data and operational stability may seem, the best way to store Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is with a self-custody wallet that gives users complete control over their private keys.
This minimizes exposure to external events, such as technical, regulatory, or reliance on third parties.
Although the available data indicates that Binance is not facing an imminent collapse scenario, vigilance and self-control are still key recommendations in a volatile market influenced by macroeconomic factors and geopolitical events.
