By Binance said Monday it is temporarily pausing bitcoin withdrawals “due to a stuck transaction causing a backlog.”
A tweet from Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao noting the issue came at 8 a.m. ET, at which point Zhao said the problem would be fixed in around 30 minutes. He later said it would take “a bit longer to fix than [his] initial estimate.” By 11:25 a.m. on Wall Street an update had not yet been issued saying the problem was resolved.
He added in the tweet that, “[t]his is only impacting the Bitcoin network,” and 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.
The news comes as bitcoin tumbled more than 10% on Monday, breaking below $24,000 and sinking to the lowest level since December 2020.
The largest cryptocurrency has been hit by macroeconomic concerns, including rampant inflation.
Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange. The company handles spot trading volumes of more than $14 billion and nearly $50 billion in derivatives volume in a single day, according to data from CoinGecko.
— CNBC’s Ryan Browne contributed reporting.
Correction: Binance said it is temporarily pausing bitcoin withdrawals “due to a stuck transaction causing a backlog.” The headline on an earlier version misstated the quote.
