On May 8th, Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, temporarily halted bitcoin withdrawals due to a large volume of pending transactions. At the same time, Binance conducted a cold wallet arrangement that involved moving over 150,000 bitcoins.
In a statement released by the company, it was revealed that the team is working on a fix and will reopen BTC withdrawals as soon as possible. However, funds are said to be safe
According to Binance’s Proof of Reserve (POR), the current user assets on the exchange are 541,000 BTC, while the internal assets stand at 643,000 BTC.
The company has experienced a surge in the number of withdrawal transactions in recent times, leading to a backlog of pending transactions. Binance’s set fees did not anticipate the increase in BTC network gas fees, which has made it difficult to confirm all the pending transactions.
Binance Pauses Bitcoin Withdrawals, Blames Network Congestion
Binance said its decision was based on congestion issues impacting Bitcoin’s network, adding that the exchange was “currently working on a fix” to reopen withdrawals “as soon as possible.” Before they’re added to Bitcoin’s blockchain, transactions are broadcast to the network’s mempool where they wait to be selected by miners and inserted into Bitcoin’s next block. Currently, a sizable backlog of Bitcoin transactions is driving up transaction fees. At the same time, transaction fees on Bitcoin were sky-high. According to data from YCharts, Bitcoin transaction fees reached their highest levels in almost two years on Friday, averaging $9.62 per transaction.
