Renowned cryptocurrency exchange Binance has halted Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals twice in a matter of 12 hours before resuming the service over an alleged overflow of transactions on the Bitcoin network.

The Bitcoin mempool, also known as the “waiting area” for incoming transactions, was clogged with more than 400,000 transactions awaiting process. After the first hour of halting, Binance tweeted that BTC withdrawals have resumed, with data from CryptoQuant revealing that outflows on Binance surpassed $185 million on May 7.

On May 8, just 12 hours after the first stoppage, Binance closes BTC withdrawals for a second time, citing a “large volume of pending transactions”, as the exchange’s set fees “did not anticipate the recent surge” in the network gas fees of Bitcoin.

The techincal issues which affected spot trading on the US-based exchange, which may have not settled quite comfortably with traders; the price of BTC edged more than 1.8% downwards to $27,967 at the time of writing, while Binance’s native token BUSD traded 1% less to price at $317.5 per coin.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-closes-btc-withdrawals-amid-congestion-on-the-bitcoin-network

https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-halts-bitcoin-withdrawals-for-the-second-time-in-12-hours

https://cryptoquant.com/asset/btc/chart/exchange-flows/exchange-outflow-total

https://twitter.com/binance/status/1655250881997332482

https://twitter.com/binance/status/1655402071435411457

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bnb/

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/