Bitcoin falls as Binance suspended withdrawals twice

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By Frances Yue

Bitcoin deepened its losses on Monday, dropping more than 3.8% to the lowest level in nearly two weeks, as Binance, the largest crypto exchange, suspended bitcoin withdrawals twice over the weekend. end.

The biggest cryptocurrency BTCUSD on Monday fell to $27,650, the lowest level since April 26, according to data from CoinDesk. Bitcoin is up more than 70% so far this year, but is still down almost 60% from its 2021 all-time high.

Binance said Sunday evening that it had temporarily closed bitcoin withdrawals due to a large volume of pending transactions. Withdrawals have resumed, according to Binance.

“There is a large volume of Binance withdrawal transactions still pending as our fixed fees did not anticipate the recent increase in $BTC network gas fees,” the company said in a tweet. Gas fees refer to fees paid to miners to validate transactions on a blockchain.

Binance’s pause in withdrawals weighed on bitcoin prices from Sunday to Monday, said David Tawil, president and co-founder of ProChain Capital.

Bitcoin has mostly traded between $28,000 and $30,000 over the past month. “We had massive volatility inside that range,” Tawil said.

It’s unclear what catalysts could pull bitcoin out of the range, though there are plenty of potential ones on the horizon, including regulators’ actions against the crypto industry, currency cap issues, and more. debt and a potential recession, Tawil noted.

Read: Recession fears are fueling investors’ search for safe havens. Is bitcoin a good choice?

-Frances Yue

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(END) Dow Jones Newswire

05-08-23 1356 ET

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