Crypto exchange Binance blocks bitcoin withdrawals amid market collapse

Crypto exchange Binance has blocked bitcoin withdrawals amid a major market downturn.

It left users unable to retrieve their money as the price of bitcoin tumbled.

A stuck transaction meant there was a backlog in the company’s systems and it was unable to fulfil people’s requests, the company said.

Changpeng Zhao, the Binance chief executive who goes by the name CZ, said on Twitter that people’s funds were safe.

He also assured users that the problems were due to take around 30 minutes to fix. Later, however, he said that the issue was “going to take a bit longer to fix than my initial estimate”.

CZ restricted the replies to his tweet so that only people he followers were able to publicly respond to it. But the post nonetheless brought about panic among some investors, fearful that they could lose money given the continuing plunge in the price of bitcoin.