Binance, the world’s largest exchange by volume, has revealed a significant milestone about its SAFU fund. The fund’s name is ‘Secure Asset Fond for Users’ and it has now reached one billion dollars to pay its users for any hack or other event that could affect their funds. Two wallet addresses were also revealed by the exchange so that the public and users can track the movements of these funds.

According to the press release, this information seems to have been made in order to improve the transparency exchange for governments around the globe. It also suggested that other crypto-exchanges follow their lead. Binance said that this is the case:

Binance asks all centralized exchanges for their addresses of insurance funds. This will be a benefit to the whole ecosystem and show regulators, governments and other important stakeholders that we are committed to trust, integrity, and transparency within the crypto ecosystem.

Origin of SAFU and Past Uses

The SAFU fund was created in 2018 after the exchange suffered several trading outages due to irregular trading activity. To protect users from major hacks, the fund was created. The exchange stated at the time that it would donate 10% of trading fees to the fund and that the funds would be kept in a separate cold wallet.

SAFU has been used to help victims of hacking in numerous cases. In May 2018, hackers stole more than 7,074 from the exchange. This was one of the most well-known instances. Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s CEO, said that the company was looking at a reorganization of the BTC chains but that decided not to do so. The fund was also used to pay clients for Cover finance infinite minting hack in December.

Guido Buehler, CEO of Seba Bank, shared his prediction about where bitcoin’s price will go with CNBC on Wednesday at the Crypto Finance Conference, St. Moritz (Switzerland). Seba Bank, a digital asset banking platform licensed by Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA.

He spoke out about the bitcoin price this year.

We believe that the price will rise. Our internal valuation model suggests a price range of $50,000 to $75,000.

“I am quite certain that we will reach that level,” he said. He said that timing is the key to success.

Buehler was asked whether his prediction about bitcoin’s price in 2022 refers to Bitcoin’s value and whether BTC will surpass the record highs of last year. He replied, “I think so. But volatility remains high.”

Seba Bank’s boss explained that institutional investors would help increase bitcoin’s price in 2022. He stated:

The price will likely rise because of institutional money. Seba is a fully regulated bank. We have asset pools which are looking for the right moment to invest.

Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz stated last week that there is a huge demand for cryptocurrency from institutional investors. Nickel Digital Asset Management recently found institutional investors believe more regulation will increase the price of cryptocurrency.

Global investment bank Goldman Sachs has predicted that bitcoin’s price could hit $100K last week as Bitcoin continues its dominance as a store-of-value.

GEM Mining is an institution-grade bitcoin mining company, headquartered in Greenville. It announced that it has deployed a fleet 13118 active miners, producing 6.5 bitcoin per hour. GEM Mining’s current hash rate capacity stands at 1.25 E/H, with the fleet increase. Bitmain S19 Pro miners make up the majority of active fleet with an average hash rate 100 Terahash per second (TH/s).

The company confirmed full-funded purchase orders with hosting for 19,000 additional machines. This will allow them to activate the remaining 13,118 active miners by 2022.

Since February 2021, they have mined 560.9 Bitcoins. This has resulted in profitability ever since the first machines were put online. They reported revenue of $7.8M in November and an adjusted EBITDA exceeding $6.2M. The company’s mining operations are 92% carbon neutral.

ZebPortanova , Head for Strategic Initiatives at GEM Mining said that this announcement demonstrates our commitment to our ongoing long-term growth plan which makes GEM Mining well-positioned in order to take advantage of emerging opportunities in cryptocurrency mining.

John Warren is the CEO of GEM Mining. stated that the successful deployment of 13,000 miners was a significant milestone in GEM Mining’s growth story. We will continue to look for opportunities to deploy industry-leading tech with our top hosting partners. This has been the company’s mission since its inception, and it will continue to be our main focus in 2022.

The company, headquartered in Greenville (SC), is an institutional-grade Bitcoin mining company that is privately held. It focuses on maximising equity returns for investors. Five founding partners are the company’s leaders. They have been working together since 2017 to build the foundations of the cryptocurrency and blockchain company.

According to data, Radioshack, a 100 year-old brand that was associated with personal computers and consumer electronics in the ’70s, and ’80s respectively, is now shifting its operations to a cryptocurrency model. This new company’s mission is to “bring cryptocurrency into the mainstream.”

Radioshack will launch a decentralized exchange (or a’swap) to enable its users to trade currencies with others without the need to register on a commercial exchange. Radioshack explained that the backend of this venture will be provided by Atlas USV, a partner protocol. Radioshack estimates that this partnership will enable traders to trade with less slippage, as the exchange is expected work with an own liquidity model.

If the exchange is launched, it will be able to issue its own token called RADIO.

Resurrected Two Times and Down

Radioshack’s journey to crypto begins after the company filed twice for bankruptcy protection in 2015 and 2017. It posted its last green numbers back in 2011. That brand was revived and purchased by two investors last year to be part of a portfolio that includes other brands. Tai Lopez and Alex Mehr purchased the brand, and are now using it in a new cryptocurrency-based focus.

At the time of acquisition, the investors stated that they did not intend to revive the electronics retail business. Instead, they hoped to transform Radioshack into an internet marketplace. Merh declared:

To build a large business, we bought the raw materials. Brand is synonymous with trust. The brand is strong. The brand is strong, according to me.

Radioshack isn’t the only legacy company to have shifted to crypto recently. Kodak, a brand that specializes in photography, launched its crypto wager in 2018. It allowed users to register photos and license them for various uses. This shift was temporary and Kodakcoin did not launch.

After a weekend of volatility, Monday saw a rebound as risk sentiment returned. This was due to easing concerns over Omicron coronavirus variants and signs that long-term investors were still firm.

After falling to $45,032 on Saturday, the price was flat at $49146.5

With early signs that the Omicron variant Covid-19 is not as fatal, investors have increased their appetite for risk assets.

Data showing that long-term bitcoin holders retained their bullish bets even during the recent selloff helped to ease macroeconomic worries.

Glassnode reported that only 2.63% of the older coin supply was sold into this group [bitcoin traders holding BTC for less then three months] since October 27.

The weekend’s bitcoin rout was likely driven by short-term traders who had leverage to fuel bullish bets.

According to the report, these investors are likely to have bought their coins at the tops and are now spending them [at loss] to buy new investments.

Some pointed out that funding rates, which is the cost of holding long futures positions on exchanges, was nearing neutral as an indicator that there was a wild swing or volatility event.

Investors rushed to close leveraged positions in the selloff that followed. The perpetual funding rate plunged to -0.035% for the first time in more than two months.

Sometimes, a reset in the funding bias can be a change of sentiment. It can take up to weeks to shift.

Glassnode stated that the trend of the previous funding reset in July didn’t reverse until October, which coincided with the record rally for Bitcoin.

BTC bulls might feel some comfort if the price action continues to be volatile.

“[O]ver 97% have remained unspent from the recent pullback and all-time high. Glassnode said that HODLers of older coins don’t spend them.