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High Bitcoin Fees? Binance Just Moved $550 Million for $5 Bucks

Anja van Oosterhout | May 31, 2019 | 15:00

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Bitcoin’s benefits over fiat unexpectedly hit the spotlight again May 31 after cryptocurrency exchange Binance generated a giant transaction while moving funds.

Bitcoin Moves Half A Billion In Minutes

Data from Whale Alerts, which monitors transactions on cryptocurrency blockchains, initially worried commentators after showing a series of transactions worth over $500 million.

“This was an internal Binance transfer. No need to panic,” staff subsequently clarified.

Attention subsequently turned to a different aspect of the transactions as social media users followed their progress through the Bitcoin blockchain.

For funds totaling $550 million, Binance managed to pay just $5 in fees or about 141 satoshis per byte. When executives moved the funds again, the fee was even less, clocking in at just $3.70.

Both transactions took minutes to process, underscoring the utility Bitcoin presents for large-volume traders. With fees remaining low over the past six months, the cryptocurrency easily beats alternative funds transfer options on both time and expense.

As Bitcoinist reported, the end of the Bitcoin bear market from 2018 has so far failed to hike up the fees for sending it. At the same time, network activity has increased sharply since the price bottom in November, recording new daily volume records last week.

In 2018, Bitcoin nevertheless moved $3.2 trillion worth of value via layer one transactions alone.

BCH Takes An Ideological Beating

The statistics play into the hands of Bitcoin supporters, who have watched while proponents of rival cryptocurrencies claimed the network was slow, expensive and doomed to be usurped by something else.

Among them was Bitcoin Cash sponsor Roger Ver, who in an interview with Bitcoinist spelled out why he thought Bitcoin would ultimately fail as a value transfer proposition.

That users can move huge amounts for pennies was a temporary phenomenon, he claimed, since developers want them to more closely match Bitcoin’s ‘value.’

“By intentional design of the ‘Core Developers’, they want Bitcoin to have high fees and full blocks,” he said.

If the fees are currently low, then they are failing at what they have set out to accomplish. Either way, they are incompetent.

More recently, Ver appeared to lose the BTC bet again, after a wager over fees versus transaction processing times with veteran trader Tone Vays went wrong.

Today at #AIBCsummit @rogerkver claimed average #Bitcoin transaction fee was $3. I called bullshit & he offered to pay $10,000 if my $5 $BTC transaction would clear in 24 hour at 1 #satoshi/byte = 1 Penny!
Transaction cleared after 10hrs. Debate at 6:35:00 https://t.co/QAhqmrjhvN pic.twitter.com/VYHiBibh3u

— Tone Vays [#UnderstandBit] (@ToneVays) May 25, 2019

Vays had challenged the Bitcoin.com owner over unsubstantiated claims the average Bitcoin network fee was $3, retorting he could clear a tiny $5 transaction with a fee of $0.01 within 24 hours.

Ver said he would pay Vays $10,000 if he won: the transaction processed in just ten hours.

What do you think about Bitcoin fees and transaction times? Let us know in the comments below!

Images via Shutterstock