Binance spends $13 million from the insurance fund

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Written on May 11, 2020

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Bitcoin price saw a severe crash this weekend, dropping by around 20% within minutes.
Binance's protective measures reacted, and its insurance fund used $13 million to protect its futures users.
Binance now aims to increase the amount stored within the fund by an additional $30 million.

The crypto market saw a lot of volatility over this past weekend, causing yet another crypto price crash. Bitcoin, specifically, lost as much as 20% of its price, causing the leading exchange, Binance, to use its insurance fund to protect users.

Binance’s insurance fund’s role is to protect the exchange’s users from auto-deleverage liquidations on its futures platform. Over the weekend, the exchange had to use as much as $13 million due to the Bitcoin price crash. The exchange commented that it plans to add around $30 million more to ensure that the fund can protect its customers.

Bitcoin volatility endangers futures traders

Binance futures saw a lot of popularity in a brief period after its launch. It is currently well on its way of becoming the leading platform for trading crypto derivatives.

Meanwhile, its fund is there to protect users from severe and unexpected price swings and auto-deleverage liquidations. The fund got tested over this weekend, as Bitcoin price crashed by about 20% yesterday.

The drop was rather sudden, taking place in less than 10 minutes, causing the price to drop by around $1,500. The exchange’s fund then spent $13 million to protect users. The state of the fund is evident on the official website, which tracks the amount stored within.

On May 10th, the fund held over $21 million in USDT. However, today, May 11th, that amount sank to $7.7 million.

Binance plans to add $30 more to the fund

Binance recognized this on its Twitter account, further adding that it plans to add an extra $30 million to the fund. It proved useful in protecting the users, although it clearly requires a greater amount in order to cover the customers properly.

The #BinanceFutures Insurance Fund used over 13,000,000 USDT yesterday protecting users from further ADL's.

We will inject an additional 30,000,000 $USDT into the insurance fund, on top of the 7,500,000 USDT from April 30th, to both support, and continue to protect our users. pic.twitter.com/cuHVH2JWWb

— Binance (@binance) May 11, 2020

Of course, the value and importance of funds like these are crucial in order for traders to be protected. While Bitcoin’s 20% drop did come as a surprise, this is not that unusual. Bitcoin’s volatility can eradicate an entire fortune in minutes. With that in mind, solutions like the insurance fund are necessary in order to attract institutional investors.