Stephanie Douse 
Binance, the world’s largest exchange, has temporarily halted Bitcoin withdrawals.
Crypto’s Black Monday is still wreaking havoc. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said on Twitter that Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals would be temporarily halted.
CZ, who often lends his opinion to projects and the market, regularly tweets on behalf of Binance to his 6.4 million followers. He quickly updated the tweet to show:
“This is only impacting the Bitcoin network. You can still withdraw Bitcoin on other networks like BEP-20.”
SAFU is a play on the term “safe” that initially appeared in a YouTube video three years ago, and it also alludes to Binance’s trade protection fund, the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU). The fund was established during the previous down market, but given Celsius‘ apparent insolvency, investors may be justified in raising the alarm.
The exchange setback may be worse than first believed, according to a follow-up tweet:
“Likely this is going to take a bit longer to fix than my initial estimate. More updates soon. Thanks for your patience and understanding.”
Binance’s official Twitter account confirmed the delay, claiming that it was caused by a “stuck on-chain transaction.” According to some commentators, the Bitcoin Lightning Network would have averted such a problem.
Indeed, despite its scale and global reach, Binance has yet to catch up to its competitors in terms of Lightning integration. The head of competitor FTX exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried, recently stated that he would urge developers to work on incorporating the layer-2 protocol into the exchange, although Coinbase and Binance lag behind.
Kraken just added the ability for consumers to withdraw funds from their accounts instantly using the LN. In great and encouraging news, the total quantity of Bitcoin on the network has surpassed the 4,000 BTC mark.