Binance Crypto Exchange Pauses Bitcoin Withdrawals Citing Large Volumes

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance halted Bitcoin withdrawals on Monday for the second time in a day, citing large volumes.

“Our team is currently working on a fix and will reopen (Bitcoin) withdrawals as soon as possible,” the company said in a tweet.

“There is a large volume of withdrawal transactions from Binance still pending as our set fees did not anticipate the recent surge in (Bitcoin) network gas fees,” Binance said, referring to payments made to crypto miners who process transactions on the blockchain.

Earlier in the day it had paused withdrawals for about an hour.

In March, Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange suspended deposits and withdrawals citing tech issues. Bitcoin was down about 1 percent to $28,191 (roughly Rs. 23 lakh), its lowest in nearly a week.

Last month, Binance confirmed that the software that underpins the second-biggest crypto coin Ether was upgraded.

The move is said to give investors access to more than $30 billion (roughly Rs. 2,45,877 crore) of the digital tokens.

Known as Shapella, the latest upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain since its Merge upgrade will enable investors to redeem an offshoot of ether tokens that they have deposited in return for interest on the blockchain network over the past three years.

“The Shanghai/Shapella Upgrade is complete. Deposits & withdrawals for ETH, OP, ARB and ERC-20 tokens via the Ethereum, Optimism, and Arbitrum networks are now back online,” Binance said in a tweet.

Binance also closed its Australian derivatives business after relinquishing a financial services licence last month amid a regulatory probe into its operations.

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) had been conducting a “targeted review” of Binance, first confirmed in February, when Binance said it had misclassified some retail investors as wholesale.

© Thomson Reuters 2023