Binance temporarily suspends Bitcoin withdrawals: BRC-20 causing a surge in Gas Fees, multiple transactions put on hold

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Binance Suspends Bitcoin Withdrawals Temporarily

Binance tweeted at 11 p.m. on May 7 that it had temporarily suspended Bitcoin withdrawals due to congestion on the Bitcoin network.

Withdrawals were reopened about an hour and a half later in the early hours of May 8.

$BTC withdrawals are now resumed on #Binance.

Thank you for your patience and we apologize for any inconvenience.

— Binance (@binance) May 7, 2023

Binance Halts Bitcoin Withdrawals Again

At 9 a.m. on May 8, Binance once again stopped Bitcoin withdrawals, with their tweet stating:

We did not anticipate the recent surge in Bitcoin network Gas, so there are still a large number of pending withdrawal requests on the platform. The Binance team is working hard to expedite the processing of all unconfirmed transactions and has increased the fees to ensure they are accepted by the mining pools.

By around 11 a.m., Binance emphasized that Bitcoin withdrawals were expected to resume within an hour.

Bitcoin has seen a decline of about -1.53% since the early hours of May 8, with no significant fluctuations. Binance also announced close to 12 p.m. that it had adjusted the Bitcoin withdrawal fees and resumed withdrawals.

BRC-20 Leads to Surge in Gas Fees

Dune data shows that on May 7, there were 396,763 transactions on the Bitcoin chain, with minting fees of 236 BTC and transaction fees of 7.87 BTC, both hitting all-time highs.