FTX to Freeze Deposits, Withdrawals Amid Ethereum’s Transition to Merge

FTX crypto exchange will be briefly pausing all deposits and withdrawals of ETH and ERC-20 tokens as the Etheruem blockchain gears up to transition into its eco-friendly upgrade, named the Merge. The final Bellatrix update for this transition to complete is scheduled to start on Tuesday, September 6. The Merge is expected to arrive around September 15, if all goes well. In a bid to ensure that no transactions are lost or hit during this transition, FTX will be halting all deposits and withdrawals for at least 30 minutes on Solana, Arbitrum, as well as other blockchains.

“FTX will suspend ETH and ERC-20 token deposits and withdrawals at approximately half an hour before the Bellatrix consensus layer upgrade. It is your responsibility to understand the implications of the Merge. FTX is not liable for any losses incurred,” the company said in its blog post.

The Bahamas-based crypto exchange, which claimed to have over one million users as of February this year, has also posted an update on Twitter.

This decision from FTX comes just days after a DappRadar report had warned that stablecoins and transactions backed on the Ethereum blockchain could encounter some snags as the blockchain shifts from its energy-intensive Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining model to the energy-efficient Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mining model.

While the PoW mining model is infamous for consuming bulks of energy, PoS-supporting blockchains are termed as energy efficient.

Once the Ethereum blockchain transitions to its Merge version, its power consumption will be cut by 99.95 percent.

In the backdrop of the Merge release inching closer, OpenSea NFT marketplace recently said that it will solely support the upgraded version of the blockchain.

Earlier this month, stablecoin major Tether and Circle Pay, the issuer of USD Coin, also extended support for the Merge.

While Circle Pay has said that once the Merge has released, it will only use that version of Ethereum for the operations of USD Coin, Tether has decided to start making arrangements to support the Merge in line with its release schedule.