BINANCE SAYS USERS CAN NOW VERIFY 1:1 BACKING — THE FINISHED PROOF COVERS WHAT IT OWES — ITS RESERVE FILE STILL COUNTS 1,200 BITCOIN AN ADDRESS LEFT IN AUGUST

At 12:49 UTC on November 2, 2026, Binance posted its fifth recovery update. It says the zero-knowledge proof for its October 31 snapshot is complete and that users holding ten tokens “can independently verify that their balances on Binance are backed at a minimum of 1:1.” On October 31 its reserve page showed the Merkle root as In Progress. It now shows 169dd7e2300fabd4f7a8d11d745fe24f4c31ae1ccac6c4391fbd47b548740ad0.

That is real work, and it is half the job. Binance’s own page says what the proof does: it shows that users’ balances “contribute to the exchange’s claimed total user asset balance,” and lets accounts check they are “included within the liabilities report.” So it tests the number Binance owes. It doesn’t test the number Binance holds.

The holding side is still a file, and that file hasn’t changed. It was last modified at 05:09 UTC on November 1. It still lists bc1q9n7j6a5wwru6tad9xrlncnagresvyjt96pl3en at 1,300.019572 bitcoin. Two block explorers put that address at 100.01957174, as they did when we checked it on October 31. Binance’s page prints 692,488.864 bitcoin held against 692,186.737 owed, a ratio of 100.04% and a cushion of about 302. Take out the 1,200 and it is 99.87%, or 897.87 short. The 1,200 may still be Binance’s: it sits unmoved at an address that once took a small payment from the listed one. Then the list has the wrong address.

Binance says it will take a wider snapshot on November 4, with a new proof about 40 to 50 hours later. Watch whether that list drops the 1,200 or names where it went. The October 31 numbers also predate the November 1 reopening, so they say nothing about what left after. A proof can make the sum of what is owed checkable. Only an address that matches the chain does that for the coins. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $77,507.