Cryptocurrency exchange Binance temporarily halted withdrawals of Bitcoin (BTC) for several hours as it struggled with heavy volumes and a surge in processing fees.
Late on May 7 and again on May 8, the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange shutdown its Bitcoin withdrawals, saying there was a rush of pending transactions.
Binance blamed the surge in withdrawals to the fact that it hadn't offered Bitcoin miners a high enough reward to log the trades on the blockchain.
The suspension of redemptions pushed Bitcoin’s price lower by about 1% to $28,162 U.S., its lowest level in a week.
This is not the first time that Binance has suspended deposits or withdrawals on its platform.
In March of this year, the exchange suspended deposits and withdrawals of cryptocurrencies citing technical issues.
Trading volume in Bitcoin on the Binance exchange totaled $6.9 billion U.S. in the 24 hours between May 7 and 8, according to analytics firm CoinMarketCap.
That trading volume was more than eight times higher than volume on rival crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN).
Bitcoin’s price has risen 68% so far this year after falling sharply in 2022.
