Binance, the biggest crypto trading platform, temporarily suspends Bitcoin withdrawals

livemint.com:

Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by volume, announced on Monday that it was temporarily pausing Bitcoin withdrawals but advised customers to use other networks.

A tweet from Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao noting the issue came at 8 am ET, at which point he said the problem would be fixed in around 30 minutes. However, Zhao later said that it would take "a bit longer to fix than [his] initial estimate."

While the issue hit Binance, Zhao said in a tweet that holders "can still withdraw Bitcoin on other networks like BEP-20."

"Funds are SAFU," he added. The acronym stands for "secure asset fund for users," which is a fund the company established in 2018 to help safeguard users.

“Binance has temporarily paused #Bitcoin withdrawals on the $BTC network. Meanwhile, you can still withdraw BTC on other networks," Binance wrote on Twitter.

“This is due to a stuck on-chain transaction. Our team is currently working on a solution and will provide further updates soon," the cryptocurrency exchange noted.

It further said that only a single network, the Bitcoin network, is impacted due to the stuck batch of transactions.

“Users can withdraw $BTC on Ethereum or BNB Chain while our team works to resolve this temporary pause," it said.

The company in a statement updated that the Bitcoin network withdrawals have now resumed on Binance.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin tumbled Monday to an 18-month low under $23,000 in a broad cryptocurrency crash, as investors shunned risky assets in the face of a vicious global markets selloff, just seven months after the virtual unit surged to a record high.

The world's most popular crypto asset also took a heavy knock from news that crypto lending platform Celsius Network paused withdrawals,