Binance Resumes Bitcoin Withdrawals After Second Pause, Says It's Adjusting Fees and Integrating Lightning Network

Binance has once again resumed BTC$91,418.69 withdrawals after a second pause, as the Bitcoin network suffers from unprecedented congestion.

Binance briefly paused bitcoin withdrawals for around two hours Sunday afternoon U.S. time as the number of unconfirmed transactions hit a record high. Its second pause, taking place Sunday evening U.S. time, was also for just over two hours.

"To prevent a similar recurrence in the future, our fees have been adjusted. We will continue to monitor on-chain activity and adjust accordingly if needed," Binance said in a tweet. "Our team has also been working on enabling BTC Lightning Network withdrawals, which will help in such situations."

The number of unconfirmed transactions was approaching 500,000 when the second halt took place, from around 400,000 when the first pause occurred. It is now beginning to decline, and is currently just over 430,000 over a 12-hour period.

The price of bitcoin continues to drift downward and is now at $28,240, down 2.6% in the last 24 hours.

CoinGecko data shows Binance has significantly slid in its position for bitcoin trading volume and is no longer in the top 10 exchanges for bitcoin trading pairs.

UPDATE (May 8, 2023, 05:00 UTC) Updates the story throughout.