To safeguard the security of its users’ accounts from hacker attacks, the world’s largest exchange, Binance, in July 2018 had established a special guarantee fund, the Secure Asset Funds, which a few days ago would have exceeded $1 billion in value.
Summary
Secure Asset Funds, the way Binance protects its users
The fund was fueled by a portion of the exchange’s fees from its users’ transactions.
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Founder and CEO of Binance, said to comment on this important milestone reached by the company that:
“At Binance, we always said ‘funds are safe’, and today the Binance Secure Asset Fund size acts as an effective safeguard as well as protection for users against such unlikely issues. Coupled with our state-of-the-art security, we are confident that our user’s interests are well-protected.”
CZ, which has always been keenly aware of the issue of transparency, trust, and security for its users, added after the serious 2019 attack that took $41 million in Bitcoin from the exchange:
“Transparency is an important element of building trust, which is why we are publishing our insurance fund wallet address. We call on all centralized exchanges to do the same as it will benefit the entire ecosystem and demonstrate to governments, regulators, and important stakeholders our collective commitment to uphold trust, integrity, and transparency in the crypto ecosystem.”
Ransomware in 2021
According to IT consulting firm Chainalysis, approximately $600 million would be paid out in 2021 for ransomware, which is ransom payments due to data theft by hacker attacks. The still incomplete figure would be lower than in 2020, when the figure amounted to more than $692 million. But the company’s analysts said that it would eventually be much higher than the 2020 figure.
The report reads:
“Anecdotal evidence, plus the fact that ransomware revenue in the first half of 2021 exceeded that of the first half of 2020, suggests to us that 2021 will eventually be revealed to have been an even bigger year for ransomware.”
Binance invests in Forbes
Meanwhile, always Binance announced a substantial $200 million investment in Forbes a few days ago, one of the world’s oldest and most authoritative financial magazines founded 104 years ago.
#Binance is taking a $200 million stake in @Forbes.
“This is the first step into a marketplace that has really high potential when it comes to adoption of Web 3.0 based tools”https://t.co/mDIRMHC4dT
— Binance (@binance) February 10, 2022
The new investment should lead the company to go public after the merger with a SPAC, and Binance should become the second-largest shareholder of the new company.
According to experts, this move by Zhao represents a step towards developing content to be carried forward in the Web 3.0 project, as stated by the company’s CEO.
“As Web3 and blockchain technologies move forward and the crypto market comes of age we know that media is an essential element to build widespread consumer understanding and education. We look forward to bolstering Forbes’s digital initiatives as they evolve into a next-level investment insights platform.”
