Binance, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, is converting $1 billion in the stablecoin Binance USD, or BUSD, into bitcoin, Ether and other cryptocurrencies, said Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, in a tweet posted Monday morning.
“Given the changes in stablecoins 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,” Zhao wrote.
The crypto exchange launched its Industry Recovery Initiative in November after FTX, another crypto exchange, filed for bankruptcy. The goal was to help projects that “are otherwise strong but in a liquidity crisis,” Zhao had tweeted in November.
The move comes after the crypto industry faced another setback when regulators in the U.S. shut down crypto-focused Signature Bank. Last week, Silvergate closed, and the venture-capital-oriented Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on Friday.
Bitcoin
BTCUSD,
is trading at $22,192, up 8.05% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. Ether
ETHE,
is up 8.15%, trading at $1,558, over the last 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data.
MarketWatch has sought further comment from Binance, which responded with a link to Zhao’s tweet.
