Binance Temporarily Stops Bitcoin Withdrawals

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has temporarily shut down Bitcoin withdrawals because its network is suffering from an “overload” problem, the company said in a tweet on Sunday.

“Our team is currently working on a solution until the network is stabilized and will reopen $BTC withdrawals as soon as possible,” the tweet said.

“Be safe, funds are SAFU.”

SAFU refers to Binance’s Secure Asset Fund for Users, an emergency fund the platform created in July 2018 to protect users’ investments. While the fund fluctuates based on the market, it is valued at around $1 billion, according to the Binance website.

The term also means “safe” in the cryptocurrency world.

However, shortly before 9pm UAE time on Sunday, Binance said the issue had been resolved in a follow-up tweet.

“$BTC withdrawals are now resuming on #Binance. Thank you for your patience and we apologize for any inconvenience,” the company said on Twitter.

It is not the first time that Binance has temporarily stopped Bitcoin withdrawals. Last June, Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhou tweeted that the platform had temporarily “paused Bitcoin withdrawals due to a stuck transaction causing a backlog.”

“Should be fixed in ~30 minutes. Will update. Funds are SAFU.” Zhou added.

It’s been a turbulent 12 months for the global cryptocurrency sector, which is only now emerging from a “crypto winter” following the collapse of a number of major platforms, including Celsius, Three Arrows Capital and Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, which filed for bankruptcy in the US November 11th.

The collapse of FTX, once valued at $32 billion, is the highest-profile cryptocurrency exchange failure to date, after traders withdrew $6 billion from the platform in three days and rival exchange Binance abandoned a rescue deal, Reuters reported at the time.

Bitcoin is currently up 1.12 percent at $28,981.48 as of 19:50 UAE time on Sunday.

Last month, Bitcoin climbed above the key $30,000 barrier for the first time since June 2022, but is still down more than 50 percent from a record high of more than $68,000 in November 2021.

In February, Binance admitted it had “gaps” in compliance with US regulations and said the company would likely pay a fine to settle investigations.

However, the loopholes were closed and the company coordinated with US authorities to resolve any issues, Bloomberg reported at the time, citing Binance chief strategy officer Patrick Hillmann.

Updated: May 7, 2023, 4:35 p.m