Binance completed the first $100 million Bitcoin purchase for its SAFU fund conversion on February 2, executing a transaction of 1,350 BTC at approximately $77,873 per coin as the crypto traded near nine-month lows. The exchange announced it seeks to complete the full $1 billion conversion within 30 days of its original January 30 announcement, responding to mounting community criticism following October’s $19 billion liquidation event. The move comes as Bitcoin plunged below $80,000 over the weekend , triggering over $2.5 billion in liquidations and leaving the average U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF investor underwater with purchase prices around $87,830 while the asset trades near $75,000. Blockchain data confirmed the transaction moved funds from 22 Binance wallet addresses to a designated SAFU address holding 1,315 BTC, with the exchange paying minimal fees of 5.017 satoshis per virtual byte. #Binance SAFU Fund Asset Conversion progress update. Binance has completed the first batch of Bitcoin conversion for the SAFU Fund, amounting to 100M USD stablecoins. Our SAFU BTC address: 1BAuq7Vho2CEkVkUxbfU26LhwQjbCmWQkD TXID: https://t.co/OdrvSINsRs We’re continuing to… pic.twitter.com/Ue47ayJfbS — Binance (@binance) February 2, 2026 Industry Leaders Clash Over October Crash Root Cause OKX founder Star Xu reignited controversy surrounding the October 10 crash by publicly attributing the event to “ irresponsible marketing campaigns by certain companies, ” specifically targeting Binance’s 12% APY campaign on USDe that allowed the synthetic dollar to serve as collateral with the same treatment as USDT and USDC. “ Many industry participants believe the damage was more severe than the FTX collapse, ” Xu stated, arguing that users converting stablecoins into USDe and looping leverage created artificial APYs of “ 24%, 36%, and even 70%+, widely perceived as ‘low risk’ simply because they were offered by a major platform. “ Dragonfly Capital partner Haseeb Qureshi immediately countered with detailed order book analysis, stating, “ this story is candidly ridiculous. “ With all respect to Star, this story is candidly ridiculous. Star is trying to claim that the root cause of 10/10 was Binance creating an Ethena yield campaign, causing USDe to get overleveraged from traders looping it on Binance, which eventually unwound because of a small… https://t.co/IXlqLZI3DN pic.twitter.com/7YX529JAjN — Haseeb ＞|＜ (@hosseeb) January 31, 2026 He noted that “ BTC bottomed a full 30 minutes before USDe price was affected on Binance, ” adding that “ USDe price diverged ONLY on Binance, it did not diverge on other venues ” while “ the liquidation spiral was happening everywhere. “ Qureshi dismissed Xu’s timeline as “ clearly misplacing cause and effect, ” arguing that the best explanation is that Trump’s tariff threats caused API failures that prevented market makers from rebalancing inventory across exchanges. Ethena founder Guy Young supported Qureshi’s analysis, stating, “ data below shows clearly USDe had a price discrepancy on Binance orderbooks a full 30 minutes after BTC had bottomed from the crash. “ Xu responded by reiterating that the initial market shock would have stabilized “ absent the USDe leverage loop, ” maintaining that “ cascading liquidations were not inevitable—they were amplified by structural leverage. ” DWF Labs head Andrei Grachev defended Binance’s role, writing “ biggest exchange = biggest events, neither bad or good, ” while Wintermute also criticized Cathie Wood for calling the event a “ software glitch ” when it was “ very obviously ” a “ flash crash on mega leveraged market on illiquid Friday night driven by macro news. “ Crypto market beauty is that it is very volatile, and ofc it s great if prices go up, but they also may crash and it happens every ~6 months. And this is exactly happened on day 10/10, when the sell-off that happened bcz of Trump tariffs smashed liquidity of USDe and caused the… https://t.co/JyGKll4ZsJ — Andrei Grachev $FF (@ag_dwf) January 29, 2026 Bitcoin Tests Key Support as Bearish Predictions Mount Bitcoin dropped below $80,000 following confirmation that Kevin Warsh will become the next Federal Reserve chair, with QCP Asia reporting the asset “ briefly fell to around $74,500 after breaking key technical support ” while ether dropped below $2,170. Galaxy’s Alex Thorn also confirmed that U.S.-listed Bitcoin ETFs now hold approximately 1.28 million BTC at an average purchase price of $87,830, stating “ this means the average Bitcoin ETF purchase is underwater ” after the products recorded $2.8 billion in net redemptions over two weeks. Given the growing bearish events and sentiment, Polymarket participants now assign a 71% probability that Bitcoin will drop below $65,000 in 2026, aligning with analyst warnings about key support zones. Polymarket assigns 71% probability Bitcoin falls below $65,000 as analysts identify critical support levels near $62,000. #Polymarket #Bitcoin https://t.co/AvzOSdDWHx — Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) February 2, 2026 CryptoQuant’s Julio Moreno particularly projected potential lows “ between $56,000 and $60,000 based on Bitcoin’s realized price analysis, ” stating “ people continue to think this is a ‘bull market’ correction. It’s not. “ Strategy’s 712,647 BTC position now carries unrealized losses exceeding $900 million after Bitcoin dropped below the company’s $76,037 average cost basis. Despite that, Saylor bought an additional 855 BTC for approximately $75.3 million, at an average purchase price of roughly $87,974 per Bitcoin. For now, CryptoQuant data shows elevated volatility signs on Binance with range z30 climbing to around +3.72, a reading that “ has often preceded strong price movements, either in the form of sharp upward breakouts or rapid downward moves driven by widespread liquidation. “ The post Binance Buys $100M Bitcoin Dip, Kicking Off $1B SAFU Conversion appeared first on Cryptonews .