Bitcoin continues decline amid network congestion, higher fees

Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) continued to edge lower on Tuesday, dropping to as low as $27.41K, amid increased network congestion, which caused Binance to suspend withdrawals and raise transaction fees. The congestion was caused by meme coins flocking to BRC-20, a BTC token standard through which developers can create bitcoin NFTs via the Ordinals protocol. However, the total BRC-20 market cap dropped to $649.1M from over $916M on Monday, according to OrdSpace . To address the congestion issue, Binance had to increase fees and OANDA analyst Edward Moya does not think this will be well received. "The headlines have not been friendly for bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) to start the trading week. Binance withdrawal fees will jump from around $5.59 to $27.94 per withdrawal." Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) slipped 0.6% to $27.63K as of 1.52 pm ET, while ether ( ETH-USD ) inched 0.1% lower to $1.85K. Meanwhile, some crypto miners recovered after Monday's losses: Riot Platforms ( RIOT ) +8.3% , Cipher Mining ( CIFR ) +4.9% , BIT Mining ( BTCM ) +4.3% , Marathon Digital ( MARA ) +2.3% . The overall crypto market cap stood at $1.14T, 0.9% lower than Monday, according to CoinMarketCap . More on Crypto Bitcoin May Get Back Above $32K In Rebellion Against U.S. Dollar Ethereum's Hard Fork Draws Stakers, Raises Regulatory Stakes The Path Forward For Cryptocurrency