Binance suspends Ether and ERC-20 withdrawal for 30 minutes

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Binance suspends Ether and ERC-20 withdrawal for 30 minutes

By Hassan Maishera - min read
Binance logo on phone with cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance briefly suspended Ether (ETH) and ERC-20 tokens withdrawal for more than 30 minutes yesterday

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance briefly suspended the withdrawal of ETH and ERC-20 tokens for more than 30 minutes yesterday. Binance announced via its official Twitter page that it had temporarily suspended the withdrawal of the cryptocurrencies.

The crypto exchange tweeted, “Binance has temporarily suspended withdrawals of $ETH and Ethereum-based tokens due to high network congestion”. Binance assured its users that their funds are safe and apologised for the inconveniences the suspension could have caused.

Ether is one of the most widely used cryptos in the world. Ether recently broke past the $2,000 mark for the first time in its history as more users flood the Ethereum network. The network congestion could be due to the ETH’s use in the DeFi space.

However, Binance later restored withdrawal services for the cryptocurrency and its tokens. The cryptocurrency exchange allowed users to start withdrawing ETH and ERC-20 tokens from its platform again. However, that didn’t stop the criticism from piling up, as traders and investors weren’t happy with the temporary suspension.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao had to make a statement regarding the exchange’s decision. He tweeted, “ETH is super congested now, at 1200+ gas. @Binance has suspended withdrawals. There was a conspiracy theory that Binance is deliberately making ETH gas fees high. Let’s see it come down a bit”.

The move by Binance came amid a surge in Ethereum gas costs and a backlog that resulted in more than 151,000 pending transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. Some users criticised Binance for the congestion on the Ethereum blockchain, claiming it was an effort to attract more users to its Binance Smart Chain.

The high Ethereum fee is proving to be a problem for the network. Crypto YouTuber Lark Davis recently urged the Ethereum developers to launch ETH 2.0. Davis warned that the failure to do so could lead to rival networks overtaking Ethereum due to its high gas fees.

The high gas fee makes it challenging for the average investors to use the Ethereum network, hence, prompting them to switch to the less expensive alternatives. Davis warned that the Binance Smart Chain is enjoying popularity, thanks to Ethereum’s current high gas fees. The Binance Smart Chain decentralised apps (dApps) are enjoying almost the same volume as the dApps hosted on the Ethereum network, he added.