Since May 7, the Bi cryptocurrency platformnance no longer allows bitcoin withdrawals. This measure is due to an alleged overload of transactions on the Bitcoin network.
At the time of writing this article, the bitcoin memory pool had over 400,000 transactions awaiting processing.
The mempool represents the “transaction waiting area incoming data before independent verification by each node in the network.
On Twitter, Binance announced that BTC withdrawals were possible again after nearly an hour of hiatus. According to data from CryptoQuant, withdrawals on the cryptocurrency exchange peaked on May 7, reaching $187 million.
The meme token activity behind the Binance incident
In all likelihood, this incident is due to an increase in BRC-20 transactions over the past few days. This increase is due to the circulation of meme tokens, such as Pepe (PEPE).
In effect, transactions in tokens mèmes have led to higher bitcoin transaction fees, the highest level in two years.
According to Cointelegraph, fees paid on the Bitcoin blockchain hit $3.5 million on May 3, which is a nearly 400% jump from the end of April.
BTC transaction fees have recently increased primarily due to an increase in bitcoin transaction activity involving BRC-20 transactions. According to data from Galaxy Research, 50% of all bitcoin transactions on May 2 were linked to BRC-20 transactions.
The BRC-20 standard, developed from Ethereum’s ERC-20 token standard, is a recently introduced experimental token standard. This standard gives users the ability to create and perform fungible token transfers on the Bitcoin network. This standard is becoming very trendy in the meme token industry.
According to data from CoinMarketCap, thee price of the $PEPE token has been up more than 263% in the past week. However, as of this writing, the meme token is down over 20.16%, following a 30% drop on May 6, as whales took advantage of the recent listing on Binance.
Two weeks ago, cryptocurrency platforms MEXC Global, Bitget, Gate.io, and Huobi carried out the listing of trading pairs PEPEwhich sparked the frenzy for the token.
meme tokens have become a major component of the cryptocurrency sphere since the introduction of Dogecoin in 2013. They have helped build fortunes and ruin others.
According to Investopedia, a meme token is a cryptocurrency whose representation is made “by comic or anime memes. These memes are supported by online traders and enthusiastic followers”.
The incident known to Binance is expected to be the last of its kind, as the crypto exchange has decided to integrate Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.