On May 7, the Bitcoin mempool was congested with over 400,000 transactions waiting to be processed, leading crypto exchange Binance to temporarily suspend Bitcoin withdrawals due to the alleged overflow. Binance later resumed withdrawals after almost an hour of halting. According to data from CryptoQuant, outflows on the exchange peaked on Sunday, rising to $187 million.
The congestion on the Bitcoin network is believed to be a result of a surge in BRC-20 transactions, driven by the popularity of memecoins such as Pepe (PEPE), which have been causing a spike in Bitcoin transaction fees. Developed as an experimental token standard that allows users to create and transfer fungible tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain, BRC-20 is currently becoming a hot spot for meme tokens. PEPE’s price has climbed over 263% in the last week, but it has recently seen a dip due to whales profiting from Binance’s recent listing.
