ETH Gas Fee Soars to 222 Gwei as Binance Consolidates ETH Wallets

• Ultrasound.Money data shows that the ETH gas fee has soared to 222 Gwei.
• The increase happened as Binance began its proof-of-reserve checks for Ethereum.
• A global audit firm confirmed Binance has more BTC to protect customer deposits.

Data from Ultrasound.Money, an analytic firm tracking the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain activities, shows that the ETH gas fee has soared to 222 Gwei in the last 24 hours. Collin Wu media believe the unprecedented increase happened as the largest crypto exchange, Binance, began its proof-of-reserve checks for Ethereum tokens.

It added that Binance consolidated ETH tokens from multiple addresses to its hot wallet labelled Binance14 for its next POR verification stage, pushing the network’s gas fee high.

Notably, Gwei is a denomination of the Ethereum token, ETH, used for paying transaction fees, equivalent to one-billionth of one ETH.

Furthermore, during Binance’s proof-of-reserve audit on Bitcoin last month, the exchange moved over $2 billion wallet worth of BTC to a newly created wallet. The action sparked multiple speculations, with crypto enthusiasts suggesting a possible bank run.

However, the CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, later affirmed that the transaction was part of the audit process, urging the community to ignore the FUD.

Notably, Binance implemented its proof-of-reserves system after the collapse of FTX last month, which exposed the fact that FTX did not have the crypto on its books to cover an influx of customer withdrawal requests. Last Wednesday, Mazars, a global audit, tax, and advisory firm, confirmed that Binance has a 101% collateralization ratio on 575,742 Bitcoin (BTC) net customer deposits as of November 22, 2022. The data matched the one given by Binance in its first proof of reserves report from last month.