Binance's $1 billion Industry Recovery Fund remains inactive

According to an onchain analysis by Wu Blockchain, citing Scope Protocol’s data, the $1 billion Industry Recovery Fund by Binance, one of the world’s largest exchanges, has been inactive since its launch in November. Based on publicly available immutable blockchain data on Dec. 30, there has been no significant movement of funds from the tracked address apart from the initial funding transfer made over four weeks ago.

The Industry Recovery Fund, created by Binance days after the collapse of the FTX in November, was meant to help bail out or inject momentum to worthy crypto projects under distress due to liquidity problems fueled by the failure of the Sam Bankman-Fried-led exchange. Binance, at that time, said only projects with solid fundamentals would be considered.

However, there has been no distributions or major announcement from the popular ramp confirming the use of a portion or all of the $1 billion kitty.

Instead, through a tweet, Wu Blockchain noted that there had been a series of dust, test transfers totaling $57.

It’s been 36 days since binance launched the $1B industry recovery fund. No activity has been sent from this wallet since the initial $1B transfer. The only value out of the fund is the 50$ test transactions. According to @ScopeProtocol https://t.co/INklOGhZ5n

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) December 30, 2022

The unexpected inactivity, despite the initial fanfare, has raised questions about the status of the fund and how the ramp plans to proceed going forward.

Some are speculating that Binance may be presently combing through applications. By late November, over 150 projects had applied for funding.

Binance to commit $1B to industry recovery fund to assist companies facing a liquidity crisis.

150 firms have already applied

— Crypto Crib (@Crypto_Crib_) November 24, 2022

On the other hand, skeptics are adamant the exchange could, after all, end up disappointing projects by holding onto funds for longer.

so either there are no worthy companies that need to be saved or only one company is worthy and used up the whole fund singlehandedly and it being a centralised entity at that? both are an embarrassment tho and doesn’t make any sense at all.

— wsg (@wes_sg) December 30, 2022

The aim of the $1b industry recovery fund

Binance stated on Nov. 24 that the Industry Recovery Fund includes contributions from co-investors eager to alleviate the liquidity crunch facing the crypto sphere. Several well-known firms pledged $50 million, including Jump Crypto, Polygon Ventures, Animoca Brands, Kronos, Aptos Labs, GSR, and Brooker Group.

Jump Crypto among firms to participate in initial commitment of around USD 50 million to Binance’s Recovery Fund.

Steady lads, deploying spare change found underneath couch cushions. pic.twitter.com/ja9hHJTVzu

— Dylan LeClair (@DylanLeClair_) November 25, 2022

Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, said they were pursuing a flexible strategy in which diverse business players might assist in whatever way they saw fit, distributing funds.