Binance Explains Why Withdrawals Were Paused

Cryptocurrency platform Binance temporarily halted withdrawals on Bitcoin on Monday blaming it on a stuck transaction that caused a backlog. According to a tweet shared by Binance’s CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao, the problem started at around 8 a.m. ET. In the same tweet, the founder and CEO promised that the issue will be taken care of in about 30 minutes. Later on, he shared that it would take more time than he had thought to fix the problem.

CEO and founder Chapeng Zhao, however, shared in a tweet that holders could still make Bitcoin withdrawals on other networks such as BEP-20. He also assured holders that their funds were safe with a tweet that said “Funds are SAFU.” SAFU means secure asset fund for users, so a pun was intended. SAFU is a fund that safeguards users and was created by Binance back in 2018.

https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1536317704990208000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1536317704990208000%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnbc.com%2F2022%2F06%2F13%2Fbinance-pauses-bitcoin-withdrawals-as-crypto-sell-off-deepens.html

At about 11:32 a.m, Binance via a tweet shared that Bitcoin withdrawals were up again.

Via tweets the company shared, Binance said the problem encountered on Monday was a “stuck on-chain transaction.” The tweet read, “A batch of $BTC transactions got stuck due to low TX fees, resulting in a backlog of BTC network withdrawals.”

A batch of $BTC transactions got stuck due to low TX fees, resulting in a backlog of BTC network withdrawals.

As a result, withdrawals on the Bitcoin network are temporarily suspended on Binance.

BTC withdrawals on other networks (BEP20 & ERC20) remain open as normal.

— Binance (@binance) June 13, 2022

The development follows a series of setbacks Bitcoin experienced just recently after the flagship currency fell below $25,000 on Monday, to its lowest level since December 2020. The cryptocurrency market also saw $150 billion wiped off and the market’s valuation fell below its trillion-dollar milestone.

Apart from all these, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have continued to be hit by macroeconomic challenges and regulation-associated challenges.

By trading volume, Binance remains the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. According to available data, the exchange handles spot trading volumes of over $14 billion and a volume of $50 billion in derivatives on a daily basis.

On Monday, cryptocurrency firm Celsius announced that it was pausing withdrawals, transfers, and swaps on its platform. This has been cited as part of the reasons for the recent setback experienced in the cryptocurrency market by experts.