After the collapse of FTX, the incident prompted many major crypto exchanges to publish proof of reserves and lists of known addresses so that users can verify the solvency of trading platforms The FTX was the first to do so. While the veracity of these proof-of-reserve lists and asset dashboards is debatable, they do provide some insight into the massive amounts of cryptocurrency held by the major exchanges. For example, Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, manages $66 billion in crypto assets, which represents more than 6% of the $1 trillion net value of the entire cryptocurrency economy.
An examination of five proof-of-reserve lists that provide insight into large cryptocurrency holdings
It has been over 80 days since Coindesk published aarticleon Alameda Research’s balance sheet, revealing that the quantitative trading desk owns a large amount of ftx tokens (FTT). Then, on November 6, 2022, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) revealed that his exchange would be selling its FTT holdings. Since then, FTT has lost considerable value, and FTX filed for bankruptcy protection five days later, on November 11. At the time, and prior to the FTX’s bankruptcy, it was difficult to monitor the exchange’s reserves because management kept things very opaque. This situation led the Exchange to publish a list of reserve certifications, and there was criticism from members of the crypto industry regarding certain types of lists and their auditing methods.
In addition, Paul Munter, acting chief accountant for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), recently stated that the SEC closely monitors proof of reserve (POR). Despite these complaints, the available proof-of-reserve lists have contributed to some degree to market stability because they provide some insight into holdings and allow for monitoring of holdings. The following is a verification of the five centralized crypto asset exchanges and their crypto asset holdings as of January 22, 2023, according tonansen.ai’s exchange list. Nansen has a dashboard of 18 centralized crypto exchange platforms.
Binance
Binance is the crypto exchange giant and largest, holding$66 billionin digital assets On January 22, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume held 486,427 bitcoins worth $11.1 billion (BTC). In terms of stablecoins, Binance holds $13.2 billion in Tether (USDT) and $13.3 billion in BUSD.
In addition, Binance holds 4.7 million ether worth $7.6 billion and another $7.6 billion worth of Binance coins (BNB). The exchange also holds other crypto assets worth more than $13 billion, too much to name. Binance’s stash would rank #4 if included in the top 10 crypto assets by market capitalization.
Okx
Nansen’s dashboard list shows that crypto exchange Okx holds$7.6 billionn crypto assets. 3 billion of the funds are held in Tether (USDT), the exchange also holds 97,656 BTCand is worth $2.2 billion.
25.95% of Okx’s assets are held in Ethereum (ETH), with a balance of 1.2 million Ether, worth $1.9 billion using current exchange rates ofETH. In addition, Okx also holds approximately 294 million USD coins (USDC).
Crypto.com
Crypto.com managed about $3.83 billionon January 22 and currently holds 44208BTCand is worth just over $1 billion. The exchange also holds 514,763ETH, which is worth just over $1 billion. This is worth approximately $833 million on Sunday.
Nansen’s Crypto.com dashboard further shows that the trading platform holds 17.28% of shiba inu (SHIB) holdings. Crypto.com’s SHIB holdings include approximately 55.2 trillion SHIBs, or $663 million worth of meme tokens. The trading platform also manages approximately 585 million USD coins (USDC) and 2.1 billion crowns (CRO), or approximately $167 million worth.
Bitfinex
digital currency trading platform Bitfinex held$8 billionin crypto assets on Sunday, January 22, 2023. 54.29% of Bitfinex’s holdings were in Bitcoin (BTC), which is approximately 191,654 BTCis worth $4.36 billion today; 28.15% of Bitfinex’s assets are held in usus sed leo tokens (LEO), or about $2.2 billion worth of LEO.
The exchange also held 466,014 Ethereum (ETH) worth $756 million on January 22. In addition, Bitfinex controls 331 million tethers (USDT) and approximately 126 millionor 0.64% of Bitfinex’s assets; it holds XRPis held as reserves.
Huobi {106
held about $3.17 billionon January 22, with 30.91% of its assets in huobi tokens (HT), the exchange coin. The exchange manages 196 million HTs, which equates to approximately $980 million in current US dollar value.
Huobi also holds 617 million tethers (USDT) and 9 million trons (TRX), worth $596 million. 12.13% of Huobi’s assets are held inBTC; 5.35% are held in ETHAnd 13.35% of Huobi’s assets are alternative crypto assets too numerous to name. $7.7 million in value is derived from Huobi’s holdings of 5.758 million HUSD, which is 30.66% of the HUSD supply. HUSD was once a stablecoin pegged to the USD but HUSD now trades at $0.13 per coin.
The five exchanges hold $88.6 billion, or 8.6% of the current USD value of the crypto economy
All five of the aforementioned cryptocurrency exchanges hold a combined $88.6 billion in crypto assets. The combined value of the exchanges’ five reserves represents 8.6% of the current US$1 trillion crypto economy.
74.49% of the $88.6 billion is held at Binance, with the remainder distributed among Okx, Crypto.com, Bitfinex, and Huobi. The trading platform with the largest exchange token coins is Bitfinex, with $2.2 billion worth of LEOs hidden away. Of the five exchanges mentioned, Binance holds the most bitcoins (BTC) with 486,427 cash; BTC
is a recent crypto exchange trend of proof-of reserve lists and asset dashboards. Do you have concerns about the authenticity of these lists? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.
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