The Binance cryptocurrency exchange has suspended bitcoin withdrawals for the second time in a few hours due to network overload.
To solve the problem, the exchange had to increase the withdrawal fee.
On May 8, the Binance team warned users on Twitter that the exchange temporarily shut down the withdrawal of BTC due to the high volume of unfinished transactions in the network.
Binance said it was working to rectify the situation, and a few hours later reported that withdrawals had resumed.
Later, however, the exchange had to suspend the withdrawal of bitcoins again.
We’ve temporarily closed #BTC withdrawals due to the large volume of pending transactions.
Our team is currently working on a fix and will reopen $BTC withdrawals as soon as possible.
Rest assured, funds are SAFU.
– Binance (@binance) May 8, 2023
To “unload” accumulated bitcoin transactions more quickly, Binance raised withdrawal fees. The exchange team said it is working on confirming all pending transactions.
To speed up this process, Lightning Network withdrawals have been connected; Exchange specialists assured that client funds are safe.
The situation is related to the activation of the Bitcoin Taproot update and the use of “sequence numbers,” which put pressure on the network of the first cryptocurrency and led to the clogging of the mempool.
This is not the first time Binance has suspended withdrawals of cryptoassets.
Last June, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced that Binance users would temporarily be unable to withdraw bitcoins due to a drop in major cryptocurrencies.
In December, the exchange suspended withdrawals of USDC staplecoins due to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
In the same month, Binance blocked the ability to withdraw assets for accounts that used the abnormal volatility of some cryptocurrencies to make profits.