Private and publicly traded bitcoin miners can now apply for loans with Binance as cryptocurrency exchange launched a $500 million fund on Oct. 14 for miners unable to cope with the ongoing downturn in crypto market conditions.

Bitcoin miners who apply for loans with Binance Pool, the company’s mining service, must pledge security to obtain loans for 18 to 24 months. Securities can be in the form of physical or digital assets.

The Bitcoin fund for miners has followed in the footsteps of Chinese crypto billionaire Jihan Wu, the founder of Bitmain, who last month created a $250 million fund to buy distressed assets from Bitcoin miners.

Wu’s Bitdeer Technologies Holding Co has planned to invest $50 million from its own fund. Following this, Wu plans to raise an additional $200 million from outside investors.

Binance’s move came as bitcoin miners have experienced tough times in recent months, with the price of bitcoin falling too low. Along with that, the income of these miners has also drastically decreased. Bitcoin mining company Compute North has already filed for bankruptcy.

According to various sources, his revenue fell by around 16.2% or $550.5 million last month. The drop was the fifth drop in the last six months and the lowest total since November 2020.

Another crypto firm also launched a similar fund earlier this month for struggling crypto miners. Crypto asset manager Grayscale has opened a new entity called Grayscale Digital Infrastructure Opportunities LLC to invest in Bitcoin mining hardware.

The new entity has planned to buy mining rigs and generate income by selling the bitcoins obtained through the team.

In another major development for the cryptocurrency exchange, Binance Chain (BNB) has successfully cleared approximately 2,065,152.42 BNB or $548 million worth of BNB following its quarterly release on October 14, 2022.

The move has not affected the market relatively, according to Blockchain.News.

The exchange also stated that an additional 4,833.25 BNB was part of the burn through its Pioneer Burn Program, a burn program that favors those who actually lost their digital assets.

Binance takes responsibility for these losses in the Pioneer Burn Program by deducting tokens (lost by users due to honest mistakes) in the quarterly burn and then refunding users based on some specific conditions.

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