Binance greets the Ethereum Merge with suspended withdrawals and deposits.
Binance, the largest crypto exchange considering daily trading volumes, is planning to postpone Ether (ETH) and ERC-20 token withdrawals and deposits during the Ethereum Merge.
According to the announcement shared on Binance’s website, the company will take this step to reduce trading risks and to keep user funds safe.
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Based on the information shared by Binance, the company will halt its withdrawals and deposits in the same order as the Ethereum Merge will happen. The first suspension will happen on September 6th, during the Bellatrix consensus layer upgrade. Afterward, on September 15th, transactions will also be halted as the Paris execution layer will be upgraded.
The crypto exchange notes that other services, such as Binance Pay, futures trading, spot and margin trading, Binance Card, will not be affected.
During its announcement, Binance identified two scenarios following the Merge. The first scenario is that no new token will be issued. In that case, Binance is set to relaunch the “deposits and withdrawals of ETH and ERC-20 tokens as soon as possible”.
The second scenario notes that the chain may split into two units creating a new token. In that case, the ETH ticker will be used to represent the Ethereum PoS chain. The company notes:
We will then credit to users’ Binance accounts the forked token from the minority chain at a ratio of 1:1, based on the snapshot of ETH balances before the Paris execution layer upgrade (approximately at ETH mainnet block height of 15,540,293, or 2022-09-15 00:30 (UTC)).
The company highlights that depending on the situation, separate announcements will be shared down the line.
Binance is not the only crypto exchange planning to take such a measure. On August 16th, an American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced its plans to temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals of Ether (ETH) and ERC-20 tokens during September’s Ethereum Merge.
Shortly after that, the Ethereum Foundation revealed detailed plans about the upcoming Merge, including dates and the processes that will take place.
