Amid market meltdown, Binance suspends Bitcoin withdrawals
Binance momentarily halted bitcoin withdrawals on Monday morning “due to a blocked transaction creating a backlog.”
At 8 a.m. ET, Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao used Twitter to convey the situation, saying it would be addressed in 30 minutes. He then said that fixing it will take “a little longer than [his] initial estimate.”
“We are still working to process the pending Bitcoin (BTC) network withdrawals, and this is estimated to be completed in the next couple of hours,” the statement continued. “Please note that pending Bitcoin (BTC) network withdrawals will be rejected. In this case, the relevant users will need to resubmit their withdrawal requests.”
Binance said in a tweet at 11:32 a.m. on Wall Street that bitcoin withdrawals had resumed.
While Binance was struck by the problem, Zhao indicated in a tweet that holders “may still withdraw Bitcoin on other networks like BEP-20.” He continued, “Funds are SAFU.” The name stands for “secure asset fund for users,” a fund established by the company in 2018 to help safeguard users.
The news comes as bitcoin fell more than 10% on Monday, falling below $24,000 and reaching its lowest level since December 2020. Macroeconomic concerns, such as high inflation, have weighed heavily on the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. According to CoinGecko data, the company handles spot trading volumes of more than $14 billion and derivatives transactions of approximately $50 billion in a single day.