“We are taking this necessary action for the benefit of our entire community in order to stabilize liquidity and operations, while taking measures to preserve and protect assets,” the company said in a blog post. The UK-listed company has about $ 3.7 billion in assets, according to its website. He pays interest on cryptocurrency deposits and lends them to make a return. Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, suspended withdrawals from its bitcoin network for a few hours on Monday. The company said it made the decision because some transactions were “stuck” and were pending. “We are still working to process the pending Bitcoin (BTC) network withdrawals and this is expected to be completed within the next two hours,” the company said in a statement. The cryptocurrency market has hit the hammer in recent months following the collapse of the pandemic. As the world’s major central banks raised interest rates to curb spiraling inflation, traders rushed to abandon more risky investments, including their volatile cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency, has lost 15% in the last 24 hours – submitting about 66% below its all-time high in November last year, when it traded at around $ 69,000, according to Coinbase. Bitcoin fell below $ 24,000 on Monday, sending encryption to its lowest level since December 2020. Ether, the second-largest digital currency, plunged 17% and has now lost about 75% of its value since November. The so-called “stablecoins” – cryptocurrencies associated with the value of more traditional assets – have also struck. Tether, a popular stablecoin, broke its bond with the US dollar in May, piercing the view that it could act as a hedge against instability. TerraUSD, a more risky stablecoin algorithm that used complex code to link its value to the US dollar, collapsed the same month, destroying the savings of thousands of investors. The coin was worth just over $ 18 billion in early May before it crashed, according to CoinMarketCap. Celsius Network did not say when it would allow customers to withdraw their deposits again, only that it would “take time”. Governments, meanwhile, are closely monitoring the aftermath of the cryptocurrency crash and could move to protect investors. “There are a lot of risks associated with cryptocurrencies,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Glenn told the Senate last month. She said her department was going to issue a report on the matter. – Julia Horovic contributed to the report.
