FTX will stop ETH deposits and withdrawals on Arbitrum, Solana, BSC during the merger

FTX has announced that the crypto-trading platform will halt ETH transactions on secondary blockchains until the update is complete. September.

Warning: FTX removed the source tweet and updated the blog post that was the basis of the initial story. This article has been updated based on new official information to confirm that FTX will suspend ETH deposits and withdrawals, and will not stop trading on the crypto exchange.

While Ethereum developers have promised no downtime during The Merge, one of Ethereum's most anticipated upgrades, members of the crypto community have decided to take proactive action to ensure the safety of investors' funds. In this effort, crypto exchange FTX has announced a halt to Ether (ETH) transactions on secondary blockchains until the end of the September upgrade.

Shortly after the announcement, FTX deleted the tweet while CEO Sam Bankman-Fried clarified that “ETH trading will continue until Merge”.

Official FTX tweet (left) confirming temporary deactivation of ETH transfer. Source: Google Cache

The Merge upgrade will permanently move the Ethereum blockchain from proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism – aiming to reduce power consumption and introduce partitioning.

According to Ethereum developers, Fusion is designed to transition to PoS without any downtime due to Total Terminal Difficulty (TTD), which will transition based on the total mining power needed for the building a chain. Despite the explanation, FTX chose to suspend "deposits and withdrawals until the merger is complete and the networks are stable".

The suspension of deposits and withdrawals for Ethereum on various blockchains...