The world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, Binance temporarily paused bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals early Monday morning “due to a stuck transaction causing a backlog,” according to a tweet from CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao.
- The problem was originally expected to be fixed in about 30 minutes, according to CZ’s original tweet. Minutes later, however, he said the issue was going to take a bit longer to resolve. This was all about 90 minutes ago, as of press time.
- The Binance chief said the funds are SAFU, referring to the Secure Asset Fund for Users emergency insurance fund that his exchange established four years ago. CZ further explained that the issue was only impacting the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin remained available to withdraw on other networks like BEP-20, he said.
- The Binance withdrawal pause comes close on the heels of crypto lending network Celsius announcing Sunday night that it was suspending withdrawals, which caused a further cascade lower in crypto prices, with bitcoin on Monday morning trading below $24,000.