Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has converted $1B worth of Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin in its Industry Recovery Initiative Fund to native tokens.
The move aims to support the crypto industry amid the rising concerns around the major crypto-friendly bank collapses.
Binance's action followed the consecutive collapses of crypto-friendly Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), and Signature Bank within just a week.
- As part of the plan, $1B of BUSD was converted to Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), BNB coin (BNB), and several other tokens.
- Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) tweeted that the transactions took 15 seconds and cost $1.29.
- BNB increased by over 10% following the move, reaching the highest levels in two weeks.
- The Federal Reserve (Fed), the central banking system of the U.S., also announced a $25B funding program to support banks and other depository firms by offering them loans for up to one year.
Binance launched its Industry Recovery Initiative in November last year to support major Web3 projects that experienced a liquidity crisis.
- The launch came right after popular crypto exchange FTX's bankruptcy, which triggered a prolonged crypto winter and collapsed many other crypto-related firms such as Genesis and BlockFi.
- Initial participants of the fund included Jump Crypto, Polygon Ventures, Aptos Labs, Animoca Brands, GSR, Kronos, and Brooker Group.
