Binance BTC withdrawal halt linked to massive coin outflows

Incoming data from CryptoQuant indicates that Binance’s halt of BTC withdrawals could be connected to 3 major transactions between its wallets yesterday.

On May 7, the popular crypto exchange Binance announced halting bitcoin-related withdrawals. Moments later, the platform resumed the bitcoin withdrawal services for its investors. 

As crypto.news reported yesterday, the exchange blamed their halt of BTC withdrawals on network issues associated with the Bitcoin blockchain. Binance cited the increase in congestion in the Bitcoin network, mainly driven by the rise of Ordinals NFTs and BRC-20 tokens.

Later, Binance seemingly halted BTC withdrawals for a second time, citing a similar problem. 

However, recent data expose a small problem with Binance exchange bitcoin wallets. For instance, CryptoQuant data has exposed three major BTC balance changes within Binance wallets. 

In the CryptoQuant data charts, there was a massive outflow transaction of about 117,352 BTC coins at some point yesterday. This massive transaction was followed by a miniature inflow of just about 10,036 BTC coins within the same duration.

The same CryptoQuant data analytics indicates that about 40,184 BTC was outflows from Binance’s balances. 

Others indicate that based on past activities, once such fluctuations are noted, the Binance exchange network often makes minor adjustments to their wallets.

Analysis of on-chain data indicates that Binance’s cold wallets adjusted to new addresses. However, the same report indicates that the new address where Binance adjusted never transferred the funds out after receiving them.

The combined information from Cryptoquant also indicates a net-negative outflow on May 7. About 175,650 BTC flowed out of the exchange in the day.

Through Twitter, Binance explained that the large outflow was the exchange transferring coins between hot and cold wallets.

Coinmarketcap ‘helps Binance hide BTC data?’

The recent information surfaces as accusations arise that CoinMarketCap, a company owned by Binance, has been altering figures in favor of Binance BTC markets.

The investor noted that CMC “publishes a USDT/USD “price,” but when you look at the “source” data, it is almost entirely crypto/USDT pairs on Binance.” The user noted, “CMC does not even list a spot USDT/USD market on Binance.” Hence, the user highlighted that when the dollar price of USDT is at a premium on Binance, it could mean that the BTC/USDT pair on Binance was trading slightly lower than other exchanges.

The tweep slightly exposes the relationship between BTC/USDT pairs on Binance with the USDT/USD pairs, insinuating that CMC helps the exchange obscure some key details associated with BTC markets on Binance.