Binance halted bitcoin withdrawals amid ordinals madness
Over the weekend, Binance temporarily closed Bitcoin withdrawals as fees skyrocketed due to increased usage of the ordinals protocol, which has surged in popularity due to its ability to inscribe text and images into the blockchain. Taproot transactions, the type used for ordinals, have grown to account for over 50% of Bitcoin transactions, compared to just 2% at the start of the year. Binance eventually attributed the problem to the system configuration not expecting transaction fees at this level. Bitcoin fees approached $20, but stayed well below historical peaks, such as over $60 in April 2022 and $55 in December 2017, according to BitInfoCharts. Binance indicated that it intends to begin working on enabling withdrawals from Bitcoin using the lightning network, in order to reduce the total number of on-chain transactions it needs to complete. We've temporarily closed $BTC withdrawals as the #Bitcoin network is experiencing a congestion issue. Our team is currently wor...