BINANCE’S RESERVE LIST COUNTS 1,200 BITCOIN AN ADDRESS HASN’T HELD SINCE AUGUST — CHECKED AGAINST THE CHAIN, ITS 100.04% BITCOIN COVER IS 99.87%

Binance’s proof of reserves page tells users to “Verify that all Binance account balances are fully backed 1:1.” Its October 31, 2026 snapshot, taken at bitcoin block 973,895, puts its bitcoin at 692,488.864 against 692,186.737 owed to users. That’s a ratio of 100.04% and a cushion of about 302 bitcoin. Binance posts the address list behind that number, so I checked every bitcoin address on it against the chain.

One doesn’t match. Binance lists bc1q9n7j6a5wwru6tad9xrlncnagresvyjt96pl3en at 1,300.019572 bitcoin. At block 973,895 it held 100.01957174. The other 1,200 left in block 960,849 on August 3, 2026, went to an address that isn’t on Binance’s list, and hasn’t moved since. Binance’s August, September and October 1 lists counted those 1,200 too. The other 57 bitcoin addresses match the chain to the rounding.

Take the 1,200 out and the listed wallets hold 691,288.864 bitcoin against 692,186.737 owed. That’s 99.87%, or 897.87 short. There’s a second thing in the file. 42,746.22 of the “bitcoin” isn’t on bitcoin’s chain at all. It’s BTCB on BNB Chain and BBTC on Ethereum, tokens Binance issues itself, backed by 68,200 bitcoin in one address it shows on a separate page. Count only coins on bitcoin’s chain and the cover is 93.69%.

The 1,200 may still be Binance’s. If so, it’s put the wrong address on four lists in a row. That’s the point of a reserve proof: a number is only as good as the list you can check it against, and the user side can’t be checked yet either, because the page shows the Merkle root as “In Progress.” Your own node can check the chain. It can’t check a spreadsheet. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $77,387.