The largest crypto exchange in the world, Binance, announced today on this ‘Black Monday’ that it is withdrawing bitcoin (BTC) will temporarily stop. According to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), this was done because of a problematic on chain congestion has occurred.
Binance has temporarily paused #Bitcoin withdrawals on the $BTC network. Meanwhile, you can still withdraw BTC on other networks.
This is due to a stuck on-chain transaction. Our team is currently working on a solution and will provide further updates soon.
— Binance (@binance) June 13, 2022
Binance stops bitcoin withdrawals
Bitcoin trading volume is skyrocketing right now. This, of course, has everything to do with the severe crash today and the panic among investors that followed. Apparently the trading volume is up Binance even so high that systems have become overloaded.
Temporary pause of $BTC withdrawals on #Binance due to a stuck transaction causing a backlog. Should be fixed in ~30 minutes. Will update.
Funds are SAFU.
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) June 13, 2022
In the first communication, CZ indicated that the problems should be resolved within 30 minutes. However, CZ soon had to reconsider this message. In a later post on Twitter, the Binance CEO indicated that the problems are bigger than originally thought and that it would take longer before the withdrawal of bitcoins on Binance is possible again.
“Probably this is going to take a little longer to fix than my first estimate. More updates coming soon. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”
This is only impacting the Bitcoin network. You can still withdraw Bitcoin on other networks like BEP-20.
Likely this is going to take a bit longer to fix than my initial estimate. More updates soon. Thanks for your patience and understanding🙏
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) June 13, 2022
CZ does indicate that the withdrawal of bitcoin on other networks such as BEP-20 is still possible. So it is not the case that Binance users cannot move their bitcoins in any way. Nevertheless, the anger of Binance users is obviously high.
Crypto on Binance are safe
CZ immediately announced that investors’ funds are safe with its now famous statement: “Funds are SAFU† While “SAFU” is a popular meme within the crypto world today, it also pertains to Binance’s insurance fund fund. This Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) was set up during the previous bear market with the aim of safeguarding users’ funds in the event of an emergency.
At the beginning of this year, this SAFU insurance fund of Binance was already over $1 billion worth.
