Binance published its 28th proof-of-reserves report this month. The headline assets-to-liabilities ratio across the 11 covered assets remains above 100% — meaning Binance holds at least one dollar of each asset for every dollar of customer claim. The structure of the report has improved substantially since the first version in late 2022, but the metric still leaves out everything except the 11 reported assets.
Key takeaways
- 11 assets covered: BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC, BNB, BUSD (legacy), XRP, ADA, SOL, DOGE, MATIC.
- BTC reserves: 608,237 BTC against claims of 590,118 BTC (ratio 103%).
- ETH reserves: 4.78M ETH against claims of 4.69M ETH (ratio 101.9%).
- USDT reserves: $22.4B against claims of $22.0B (ratio 101.8%).
- Merkle tree allows any user to verify their account balance is included in the reported total.
What proof of reserves is — and is not
A proof-of-reserves report aims to demonstrate that an exchange holds customer assets in 1:1 (or greater) ratio. The mechanism is a Merkle tree of customer balances, signed by the exchange, paired with on-chain proof of asset ownership at a snapshot moment.
What it proves: at a specific moment, the exchange held wallets containing the claimed assets, and the sum of customer claim balances does not exceed those wallet balances.
What it does not prove:
- That the exchange’s liabilities are limited to customer crypto claims (off-chain debts, lending positions, regulatory exposures are not covered)
- That the exchange holds these reserves continuously between snapshots
- That the exchange has not borrowed assets specifically for the snapshot
- That custody arrangements are sound (a wallet held but compromised does not protect customers)
How Binance’s report has improved
The first PoR (Nov 2022) covered only BTC. The current report covers 11 assets — the most-traded majors. Binance now publishes monthly. Mazars audited the early reports; subsequent reports use independent attestation firms with broader scope.
The Merkle tree implementation lets any user verify their account is included in the customer-claims total. That cryptographic guarantee is materially better than “trust our auditor.”
| Asset | Reserves | Customer claims | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| BTC | 608,237 | 590,118 | 103.1% |
| ETH | 4,780,205 | 4,690,442 | 101.9% |
| USDT | $22.4B | $22.0B | 101.8% |
| USDC | $1.42B | $1.40B | 101.4% |
| BNB | 19.4M | 19.0M | 102.2% |
| SOL | 7.8M | 7.6M | 102.6% |
What is still missing
The report omits:
- Liabilities outside customer crypto claims — operating expenses, regulatory settlements, lending lines, derivatives exposure
- Off-snapshot reserve behaviour — what happened between the prior snapshot and this one
- Lower-volume assets — the long tail of tokens listed on Binance is not covered
- Yield products — Binance’s Earn products involve customer assets being lent or staked; the reserves attestation does not detail the resulting credit exposure
None of these gaps mean the exchange is unsafe. They mean the proof is narrower than “all customer assets are safe” — which is the framing many readers infer.
How this compares to other venues
Coinbase publishes regular financial statements (as a public company) and provides separate quarterly proof-of-reserves attestations. Kraken publishes proof-of-reserves at lower frequency but with explicit liability coverage in their financial statements (Kraken is private). OKX publishes monthly PoR. Bybit publishes quarterly. Smaller exchanges range from “monthly Merkle-tree PoR” to “no public report.”
“Proof of reserves is the floor of exchange transparency, not the ceiling. It does not protect against operational failure, lending losses, or regulatory action. It does protect against the specific failure mode FTX exhibited.”
The reader’s checklist for exchange safety
If you hold material assets on an exchange, the questions worth asking — beyond PoR:
- Does the venue publish full financial statements (audited annually)?
- Does the PoR cover all your assets or just the majors?
- Is your jurisdiction served by a licensed entity or an offshore arm?
- Is the venue’s lending product clearly separated from your spot balance?
- How often does PoR refresh? (Snapshot frequency matters)
Why this matters
The FTX failure happened because customer assets were not segregated from corporate balance sheets. Proof-of-reserves directly addresses that failure mode. It does not address every failure mode, but it addresses the largest one. Every major exchange should publish monthly PoR with broad asset coverage and Merkle-tree verification. Most now do. The transparency floor for the industry has risen.
If you self-custody, none of this applies. Learn the basics of wallet self-custody →