Binance closes BTC withdrawals amid congestion on the Bitcoin community

Crypto trade Binance closed Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals on Might 7 resulting from an alleged overflow of transactions on the Bitcoin community. 

Bitcoin mempool was clogged with over 400,000 transactions ready to be processed on the time of writing. The mempool is named the “ready space” for incoming transactions earlier than they’re verified independently by every node on the community.

Bitcoin mempool at 16:42 UTC on Might 7. Supply: mempool.house

Binance tweeted that BTC withdrawals had resumed after almost an hour of halting. Outflows on the crypto trade peaked on Sunday, rising to $187 million, in response to information from CryptoQuant.

Behind the congestion is believed to be a surge in BRC-20 transactions in the previous couple of days resulting from memecoins like Pepe (PEPE). The memecoin buying and selling hype drove Bitcoin transaction charges to their highest level in two years. On Might 3, the entire quantity of charges paid on the Bitcoin blockchain reached $3.5 million, leaping almost 400% from late April, Cointelegraph reported.

Bitcoin outflow on Binance over the previous seven days. Supply: CryptoQuant. 

Developed after Ethereum’s ERC-20 token commonplace, BRC-20 is an experimental token commonplace not too long ago launched that enables customers to create and switch fungible tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain. It’s presently changing into a sizzling spot for meme tokens. 

CoinMarketCap’s information exhibits that PEPE’s value has climbed over 263% within the final week. As of writing, nonetheless, the memecoin is down over 7% following a 30% drop on Might 6 as whales profited from Binance’s latest itemizing. Crypto exchanges MEXC World, Bitget, Gate.io, and Huobi listed PEPE buying and selling pairs two weeks in the past, kicking off the token hype.

For the reason that introduction of Dogecoin in 2013, memecoins have change into a serious a part of the cryptocurrency world, making and ruining fortunes alike. Investopedia defines a memecoin as a cryptocurrency represented “with comical or animated memes, which can be supported by enthusiastic on-line merchants and followers.”

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