Crypto stocks drop after Binance halts bitcoin withdrawals for hours

Shares of cryptocurrency- and blockchain-related companies fell in early trading hours on Monday after Binance halted its bitcoin withdrawals for several hours due to heavy volumes and rising processing fees.

The halts pushed bitcoin , the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, down 2% to a one-week low of $27,900.

Crypto exchange Coinbase Inc (COIN.O) fell 3.6%, while blockchain-farm operator Bitfarms Ltd dropped 5.1%. Crypto miners including Riot Platforms (RIOT.O), Marathon Digital (MARA.O) and U.S.-listed shares of Hut 8 Mining (HUT.TO) declined between 5.3% and 6.6%, tracking lower bitcoin prices.

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, shut bitcoin withdrawals for an hour late on Sunday and for about three hours on Monday, saying there was a glut of pending transactions because it hadn’t offered so-called miners a high enough reward to log the trades on the blockchain.

The company said its set fees did not anticipate a recent surge in bitcoin-network gas fees – the payments made to crypto miners whose computing power processes transactions on the blockchain.

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