Binance will withdraw from the BUSD stablecoin assets from its Industry Recovery Initiative (IRI) crypto industry assistance fund, to which the company previously sent $1 billion, Changpeng Zhao, the head of the exchange, said. The remaining funds in the fund will be converted into cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and BNB.
“Given the changes in stable coins and banks, Binance will convert the remaining of the $1 billion Industry Recovery Initiative funds from BUSD to native crypto, including BTC, BNB and ETH. Some fund movements will occur on-chain. Transparency,” Zhao wrote.
Binance announced the creation of a fund to help crypto projects in November 2022 after the collapse of FTX. Other crypto companies such as Jump Crypto, Polygon Ventures, Aptos Labs, Animoca Brands, GSR, Kronos, and Brooker Group have also joined this initiative. Changpeng Zhao’s platform sent $1 billion in BUSD stablecoins to this fund.
In early February, as part of the IRI, Binance acquired a controlling stake in the Korean crypto exchange Gopax, while the transaction amount was not disclosed. Also, the media, citing Binance co-founder Yi Hee, reported that the fund was promoting relatively large deals with two more trading platforms.
After the announcement of the withdrawal of assets from BUSD, Zhao shared a link to the transaction and noted that the transfer of funds in the amount of more than $980 million was completed in 15 seconds and cost only $1.29.
“Took 15 seconds and costs $1.29. Imagine moving $980 million through a bank before banking hours on a Monday,” he wrote.
The reason for the decision to leave BUSD, Zhao cited problems in the field of stablecoins, which began with the cessation of the issuance of a stablecoin under the Binance brand, as well as the closure of banks that worked with cryptocurrency platforms.