Binance paused bitcoin withdrawals for several hours Monday due to a ‘stuck transaction’

Binance on Monday morning temporarily paused bitcoin withdrawals “due to a stuck transaction causing a backlog.”

A tweet from Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao noting the issue came at 8 a.m. ET, at which point Zhao said the problem would be fixed in around 30 minutes. He later said it would take “a bit longer to fix than [his] initial estimate.”

Binance said in a tweet at 11:32 a.m. on Wall Street that bitcoin withdrawals had resumed.

While the issue hit Binance, Zhao said in a tweet that holders “can still withdraw Bitcoin on other networks like BEP-20.”

“Funds are SAFU,” he added. The acronym stands for “secure asset fund for users,” which is a fund the company established in 2018 to help safeguard users.

The company said the issue was thanks to a “stuck on-chain transaction.”

“A batch of $BTC transactions got stuck due to low TX fees, resulting in a backlog of BTC network withdrawals,” Binance said in a tweet.

The news comes as bitcoin tumbled more than 10% on Monday, breaking below $24,000 and sinking to the lowest level since December 2020.

The largest cryptocurrency has been hit by macroeconomic concerns, including rampant inflation.

Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange. The company handles spot trading volumes of more than $14 billion and nearly $50 billion in derivatives volume in a single day, according to data from CoinGecko.

 — CNBC’s Ryan Browne contributed reporting.

Correction: Binance said it was temporarily pausing bitcoin withdrawals “due to a stuck transaction causing a backlog.” The headline on an earlier version misstated the quote.