Crypto Exchange Giant Speeds Up Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) Withdrawals

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has stated that it has reduced the number of confirmations required to make a transaction to and from the exchange. The crypto assets that the change will apply to for now are Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).

The move should make the overall service offered by the exchange stronger. Requiring less confirmations means deposits and withdrawals will go through faster.

Binance Announce Speedier Crypto Asset Withdrawals

In a customer announcement earlier today, one of the most successful crypto asset exchange platforms has announced that it will slash the number of confirmations required when making deposits with two of its most popular digital assets.

#Binance Reduces the No. of Confirmations Required for Deposits & Withdrawals on $BTC and $ETH Networkshttps://t.co/q3GFkvdrOH pic.twitter.com/azUuRCShCM
— Binance (@binance) July 9, 2019

Going forward, Bitcoin deposits will require just one block confirmation when making a deposit with Binance. This is down from the two block confirmations it previously required. At times when the Bitcoin network is quiet, this will effectively halve the time taken to deposit.

Similarly, Ether (ETH), the native crypto asset on the Ethereum blockchain, has had its required number of confirmations cut at the leading trading venue. All ETH deposits and those in tokens distributed on the Ethereum blockchain (ERC20 tokens) will require just 12 block confirmations versus the 30 that were needed before the update.

For those that don’t know, a block confirmation occurs when another block of transactions is added to a crypto asset’s blockchain. In Bitcoin, the network rules and difficulty adjustments determine that a block is added to the chain around every 10 minutes. With the Ethereum this time is around every 15 seconds.

Of course, just because the transaction requires half (or more) of the number block confirmations before you can use the crypto asset transacted doesn’t automatically mean that your transaction will go through in half the time. It still needs to be included in a block.

At times when either the Bitcoin or Ethereum networks are not being used much, transactions will be included in a block quickly. However, if there are many other transactions waiting to be included too then the miners chose transactions that will make them the most money. It is these fee markets that cause the cost of Bitcoin transactions to rise when many people are using the market. The rising fees are the inspiration behind scaling technologies such as Lightning Network and SegWit, and even altcoins like Bitcoin Cash.

Binance is about to turn two years old this month and what a ride its been for the startup-turned-giant. In such a short time span, the exchange founded by Changpeng Zhao in China, has risen to the very top of the industry and has many times previously reported the industry’s highest trading figures. However, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. The now-Malta-based behemoth recently had a setback as it was forced to restrict some services to US members.