Cryptocurrency exchange Binance temporarily halts bitcoin withdrawals due to large volumes
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance halted Bitcoin withdrawals on Monday for the second time in a single day, citing high volumes.
“Our team is currently working on a fix and will reopen (bitcoin) withdrawals as soon as possible,” the company said in a tweet.
“A significant volume of Binance withdrawal transactions remains pending as our set fee did not anticipate the recent spike in (Bitcoin) network gas fees,” Binance said, referring to payments made to crypto miners that process transactions on the blockchain.
Earlier in the day, pause your pull-ups for about an hour.
In March, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, suspended deposits and withdrawals due to technical issues. Bitcoin fell about 1 percent to $28,191 (about Rs. 23,000), its lowest level in almost a week.
Last month, Binance confirmed that the software supporting the second largest cryptocurrency, Ether, had been upgraded.
The move is said to give investors access to more than $30 billion (roughly Rs. 2,45,877 crore) worth of digital tokens.
Known as Shapella, the latest Ethereum blockchain upgrade since the Merge upgrade will allow investors to redeem a set of ether tokens they have deposited for interest on the blockchain network over the past three years.
“Shanghai/Shapella upgrade complete. Deposits and withdrawals for ETH, OP, ARB and ERC-20 tokens via Ethereum, Optimism and Arbitrum networks are now back online,” Binance said in a tweet.
Binance also shut down its Australian derivatives business after relinquishing its financial services license last month amid a regulatory investigation into its operations.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has conducted a “target review” of Binance, which was first confirmed in February, when Binance said it misclassified some retail investors as wholesalers.
© Thomson Reuters 2023