Updated (Posted ) | Peter Wind
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SAFU is a term that you’ll come across quite often in the cryptocurrency community. Most of the time, the term is used as an intentional misspelling of the word “safe”.
However, it also has a secondary meaning, referring to the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) established by the Binance cryptocurrency exchange.
Interestingly enough, the origin of the SAFU term as it is used in the crypto community is tied quite directly to Binance and its former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao.
The origin of SAFU
The term “SAFU” went viral in the cryptocurrency community after the popular crypto content creator Bizonacci published a video called “Funds Are Safu” in 2018.
In the video, which features Bizonacci’s signature meme-heavy style, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao is depicted as saying “funds are safe” on multiple occasions.
This is a reference to CZ tweeting “Funds are safe” to reassure users after the exchange’s website temporarily went down due to unscheduled maintenance.
In the video, the line “funds are safe” is spoken with a heavy accent, making the phrase sound like “funds are safu”. The humorous misspelling and mispronunciation quickly went viral in the cryptocurrency, and it didn’t take long before the meme was also embraced by CZ himself.
Big upgrade. Funds are safu! https://t.co/1DV1sVpI93
— CZ ? BNB (@cz_binance) June 25, 2018
Binance’s Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU)
After beginning to use the term “safu” in his tweets, CZ took things a step further and announced that Binance would establish an emergency fund called Secure Asset Fund for Users, or SAFU for short.
The SAFU fund is designed to protect Binance users in case of unexpected emergencies such as hacks. Binance has committed an undisclosed percentage of its trading fees to grow the SAFU fund.
At the time of writing in January of 2024, the SAFU fund holds well over $1 billion worth of crypto assets:
- 16,277 BTC ($683.7 million)
- 1.3 million BNB ($417 million)
- 100 million TUSD ($100 million)
- 100 million Binance-Peg BSC-USD ($100 million)
*Values as of January 29, 2024.
The bottom line
Today, the term “safu” is used in the crypto community as an intentional misspelling of “safe”, similarly to how “hodl” is used as an intentional misspelling of the word “hold”. The term’s popularity has grown to the extent that it’s no longer just used in reference to Binance or its former CEO Changpeng Zhao.
Alternatively, SAFU can also refer to the Secure Asset Fund for Users, an emergency fund established by the Binance cryptocurrency exchange in 2018.
