Crypto exchange Binance suspends multiple activities amid software issue

ISTANBUL

Binance, the world's biggest cryptocurrency trading platform, suspended multiple activities of spot trading, deposits, and withdrawals Friday for two hours due to a software issue.

"Initial analysis indicates matching engine encountered a bug on a trailing stop order (a weird one). Recovering," Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao wrote on his Twitter account.

"Waiting for more precise ETA. Deposits & withdrawals are paused as a SOP (standard operating procedure). Funds are #SAFU," he added, referring to "Secure Asset Fund for Users."

While the world's largest crypto trading platform frustrated investors, Zhao said: "When the biggest exchange halts trading, prices won't move much. If it moves on smaller exchanges, when #Binance comes back, our deeper orderbook will bring the price back, causing those guys to lose money. Traders know this."

Binance said in a statement it completed temporary system maintenance and that it would resume all trading activity at 1400GMT.

After the software issue was resolved, the price of Bitcoin, the world's biggest crypto by market cap, was trading just above $28,000 for a 2.2% daily loss, while the biggest altcoin Ethereum was around $1,769 for a 4% decline for the day.