Binance halts withdrawals of USDC stablecoin until it can conduct token swap

Crypto exchange Binance temporarily halted withdrawals of stablecoin USDC ( USDC-USD ) Tuesday. "#Binance is conducting a token swap involving $USDC," the exchange tweeted. "As a result, $USDC withdrawals are temporarily paused." "$USDT & #BUSD withdrawals are available and unaffected. $USDC withdrawals will reopen once the token swap is completed." The price of USDC was little changed. Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) and Ethereum ( ETH-USD ) were up about 2% . Stablecoins Tether ( USDT-USD ) and BUSD ( BUSD-USD ) were unchanged. "On USDC, we have seen an increase in withdrawals," Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted. "However, the channel to swap from PAX/BUSD to USDC requires going through a bank in NY in USD. The banks are not open for another few hours. We expect the situation will be restored when the banks open." Meanwhile, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas ahead of House testimony .