Binance resumes Bitcoin withdrawals after two pauses

Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume,has resumed Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals after two temporary suspensions on Sunday. The platform cited the record-high number of unconfirmed transactions and, hence, unprecedented congestion in the withdrawals while explaining the move. The first pause came in the afternoon, lasting around two hours, and the BTC withdrawals were halted for the second time in the evening due to the high volume of pending transactions. Nearly three hours after the second pause, the exchange resumed the BTC withdrawals, reassuring that all the customer funds were safe, and processed all pending withdrawal transactions. The platform also said it took the necessary measures to prevent such incidents in the future.  As the first measure, the fees charged by Binance were adjusted, and the popular crypto exchange warned that the fees could be adjusted again based on the on-chain activity constantly monitored by the company. The firm also started working on integrating Bitcoin's Layer-2 scaling solution, Lightning Network, for withdrawals to help the exchange in similar situations in the future. Throughout the withdrawal suspensions, Bitcoin outflows reached record highs in Binance as the platform saw 162,000 Bitcoin withdrawals, the largest amount in its history. The massive outflow caused Binance to significantly lose its position in Bitcoin trading volume and slide from the list of top 10 exchanges for Bitcoin trading pairs. The Bitcoin Lightning network recently hit the headlines several times in the crypto market. In April, crypto exchange Coinbase's CEO Brian Armstrong implied that the platform could integrate the Lightning network in the future. Business intelligence company MicroStrategy's Bitcoin advocate executive chairman, Michael Saylor, also integrated the Lightning network into his corporate email address last month, allowing anyone to send him BTC using his work email.