Share this article
Bitcoin Network Congestion Causes Binance to Pause Withdrawals
The world’s biggest crypto exchange has now resumed withdrawals, but problems continue to linger for the Bitcoin protocol.
By Sam Reynolds
Updated May 8, 2023, 8:10 p.m. Published May 7, 2023, 7:06 p.m.
Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, temporarily paused bitcoin withdrawals Sunday morning U.S. time as the Bitcoin blockchain became overwhelmed with pending transactions and sky-high fees.
The company resumed withdrawals within two hours of its initial Twitter posting about the withdrawals.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Ne manquez pas une autre histoire.Abonnez vous à la newsletter Crypto Daybook Americas aujourd. Voir toutes les newsletters
On-chain data shows that there are nearly 400,000 unconfirmed Bitcoin transactions, which is higher than anything seen during the bull runs of 2018 and 2021.
The average transaction fee has also doubled since March, pushing it to a two-year high. The current transaction fee is just over $8, a 309% change from a year ago.
“This current fee spree is an anomaly,” CoinDesk previously quoted Colin Harper, head of content at Luxor Technologies, a full-stack Bitcoin mining pool. “Biggest difference now between this jump in transaction fees and past ones with inscriptions is that BRC-20 standard is a new way to inscribe. Adoption of this standard is driving fees up.”
Bitcoin ordinal inscription tokens, known by its BRC-20 standard designator, currently have a market cap of $482 million across 14,000 tokens.
Bitcoin is currently trading at $28,935, down 0.15% in the last 24 hours.
UPDATE (May 7, 2023, 19:16 UTC): Adds line about resumption of withdrawals.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Bitcoin Rebounds to $93K From Post-Fed Lows, but Altcoins Remain Under Pressure
Downward pressure on bitcoin is losing steam, with the market stabilizing but not yet out of the woods, said one analyst.
What to know:
- Bitcoin rebounded from a sharp early selloff on Thursday to trade above $93,000 shortly after the close of U.S. stocks.
- The late-day gain in bitcoin came alongside a rebound in the Nasdaq from big morning losses; the tech index closed with just a 0.25% loss.
- Downward pressure on bitcoin is losing steam, said one analyst, but the market is not yet out of the woods.
Top Stories
