The Binance cryptocurrency exchange announced on Twitter at 9:20 AM GMT that it has “temporarily suspended withdrawals of ETH and Ethereum-based tokens due to high network congestion.”
This makes for the second time in the past week that Binance has suspended its Ethereum withdrawals.
A similar incident occurred on Feb 19, where Binance also suspended ETH and ERC-20 withdrawals, also citing “network congestion” as the reason.
Binance reassured investors that their “funds are SAFU” but didn’t provide any additional details in either suspension incidents.
Binance Pulls the Plug
During the suspension incident on Feb. 19, blockchain analyst Larry Cermak was quick to point out that Ethereum didn’t seem to be congested and that he was unable to withdraw ETH even before the suspension announcement.
At that time, Ethereum (ETH) was around its all-time high and poised to break the $2,000 mark. Binance Coin (BNB) prices were booming as well. However, due to this suspension ETH prices stagnated just below the $2,000 threshold while BNB surged $60 in the same duration.
This led to even more speculation about the motives of this suspension including potential wash trading of BNB.
Etheruem’s gas prices have been a contentious issue in 2021. Since transaction costs are directly proportional to the congestion of the network, they often vary wildly.
Ethereum gas prices have indeed spiked to highs recently, with some sources reporting $30 average fees.
Ethereum Price Update
Ethereum is currently trading for $1,492 after falling from an all-time high of $2,040 on Feb. 20. ETH tumbled nearly 24% since this high and has dropped back to its early-2018 high levels.
This marketwide crash has led to huge liquidations among crypto investors. More than $5.5 billion in positions have been liquidated in the past 24 hours according to data from Bybt.
