The exchange pulled in more than 25,000 Bitcoin in a month while its seven largest rivals saw net outflows
Binance held about $165 billion in crypto reserves on October 1. That works out to 68.7% of the $240.2 billion tracked across eight major centralized exchanges.
The figure matters because it shows how concentrated crypto’s custodial layer has become. It also shows which way money moved during a month when prices did most of the heavy lifting.
The numbers behind the dominance
Binance’s reserves climbed from $154.3 billion in September to roughly $165 billion by early October. Part of that gain came from rising asset prices. Part of it came from fresh deposits.
Bitcoin makes up about 34% of the exchange’s reserves. Tether’s USDT stablecoin follows at 19%.
Binance’s own BNB token accounts for 16.5%. WBETH, a wrapped version of staked Ether that Binance issues, sits at about 5%.
Across all eight exchanges, combined reserves rose by $18.33 billion month over month. Most of that increase came from price appreciation rather than new money walking through the door.
Bitcoin went one direction, and it was toward Binance
During the observed month, Binance added 25,155 BTC in net inflows. The other seven exchanges combined lost approximately 3,950 BTC over the same stretch.
The exchange’s latest proof of reserves update also reports reserve ratios at or above 100% for its major assets. Bitcoin came in at 100.35%, Ether at 100%, and USDT at 103.88%.
A reserve ratio is simple math. It compares what the exchange holds against what it owes customers. Anything at or above 100% means every customer coin is, on paper, backed by a real coin in Binance’s wallets.
Why exchanges started showing their receipts
Proof of reserves attestations became an industry habit after FTX collapsed in 2022. That implosion revealed what can happen when an exchange’s customer balances and actual holdings quietly drift apart.
Binance now publishes regular attestations that include detailed wallet addresses. The idea is that anyone can check the on-chain balances rather than taking the exchange’s word for it.
These snapshots have limits worth keeping in mind. Proof of reserves shows assets at a moment in time. It speaks to backing for user deposits, not to every obligation an exchange might carry.
What this means for traders and the market
The flip side is concentration risk. When one venue holds nearly 69% of tracked reserves across eight major exchanges, a large share of the market’s liquidity runs through a single company.
The next few monthly reports will show whether this was a one-month swing or a trend. Watch Binance’s net BTC flows against the rest of the field, the share of reserves held in BNB, and whether those reserve ratios stay at or above 100% as prices move.
