- On May 7, the Bitcoin transaction backlog reached a high point, with more than 400,000 transactions waiting to be processed in the Bitcoin mempool.
- On May 7, crypto exchange Binance temporarily halted Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals, citing an alleged surge in transactions overwhelming the Bitcoin network.
At the time of writing, the Bitcoin mempool contained more than 400,000 transactions awaiting processing. The mempool serves as a “waiting area” where incoming transactions are held until they are individually verified by each node on the network.
Image source: “cointelegraph”
Binance announced via Twitter that BTC withdrawals had recommenced following a temporary pause of nearly an hour. According to CryptoQuant data, outflows from the crypto exchange reached a peak of $187 million on Sunday.
Image source “cointelegraph”
The recent congestion is thought to be caused by a significant increase in BRC-20 transactions over the past few days. The trading frenzy surrounding memecoins like Pepe (PEPE) has driven Bitcoin transaction fees to their highest level in two years. According to CoinMarketCap, the PEPE token has surged over 263% in the last seven days.
BRC-20 is a newly introduced token standard that allows users to create and exchange fungible tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain. It was developed as an experimental token standard following Ethereum’s ERC-20 token standard.
We've temporarily closed $BTC withdrawals as the #Bitcoin network is experiencing a congestion issue.
Our team is currently working on a fix until the network is stabilized and will reopen $BTC withdrawals as soon as possible.
Rest assured, funds are SAFU.
— Binance (@binance) May 7, 2023
