How To Keep Your Funds SAFU?

In light of recent events surrounding FTX’s collapse, and on top of the earlier crypto market crashes as a result of Terra Luna, 3AC, and Celsius, there’s been a renewed discussion about smart and dumb investing, crypto security, and self-custody. This discussion has become so widespread that it has morphed into a designated slang-term called SAFU.

SAFU is a crypto slang term (like GM, NGMI, WAGMI, FUD) that stresses safe storage of your cryptocurrency, whether that be in the cold wallet custody of exchanges like Phemex or in one’s own wallet. The phrase, “not your keys, not your coins” is a catchphrase that encourages SAFU crypto investing and storing practices.

SAFU Meaning In Crypto: What Is SAFU?

SAFU means to keep your cryptocurrency safe with a trusted exchange that stores the assets offline and in cold storage or in storing your own coins on your personal blockchain/cryptocurrency wallet.

SAFU has evolved into a meme on crypto twitter where people are posting about the actions they’re taking to prove their assets are safe. In the picture below, a twitter user shows an image of his Ledger cold wallet, which is used to store Bitcoin.

Written on the notepad are the lyrics to a famous song, however, everyone should be clear that you should never post or tell anyone the actual private keys or seed phrase for your crypto wallets (hot or cold).

SAFU also is a “crypto” way of saying “safe.” So it can be a reference to safe crypto exchanges as well as a warning signal to unsafe ones, such as FTX.

For example, before just last week, no one was aware it was not SAFU to have any cryptocurrency or cash balance on FTX, but in fact, it was extremely risky (and not safe). As a result, there’s been an immediate effort by all exchanges to explain their risk management practices (such as cryptocurrency storage and on-demand liquidity) and make public their assets and liabilities (through Proof of Reserves).

Why Your Funds Are SAFU On Phemex?

For Phemex, system and user account security are our highest priorities. Therefore, to stay SAFU, we have designed and implemented a Hierarchical Deterministic Cold Wallet System, which assigns separate cold wallet deposit addresses to each user. What this means is Phemex deposits are periodically gathered in the company’s multi-signature cold wallet via offline signature.

In addition, when it comes to security, based on our sophisticated Wall Street risk control experience, we’re able to detect any malicious actions and quickly act to protect our users’ assets and the platform. Qualified withdrawal requests are also processed via offline signature, therefore, assets remained stored in a cold wallet system with all operations conducted offline.

Lastly, during the past week crypto has experienced it’s worst moments in years and yet Phemex still operates normally, processing withdrawal and trades like usual. These reasons combined are why trader and investor funds are SAFU on Phemex.