Binance cryptocurrency exchange plans to support the new upgrade of Ethereum (ETH) network called Muir Glacier by halting deposits and withdrawals for a short period of time before the network undergoes the upgrade on 9,200,000 block height.

ETH trading will remain untouched on Binance

Although Ether trading will run normally, withdrawals and deposits will not be resumed until Binance is sure that the network is stable enough after the Ethereum upgrade.

Binance also notified users about finishing all the withdrawals and deposits before the ETH upgrade commences.

Muir Glacier update going live weeks after Istanbul hard fork

The upgrade is scheduled for January 1, 2020 at block 9,200,000, and is intended to address the ”difficulty bomb”, as it is described in EIP 2384 proposal written by Ethereum developer James Hancock. The upgrade will delay the ”difficulty bomb” or ”Ice Age” problem for 611 days (4,000,000 blocks).

The term ”difficulty bomb” is used to describe the increasing hashing difficulty in the mining algorithm, which will inevitably lead the network to the proof-of-stake algorithm.

Ethereum Cat Herders, a community behind Ethereum development also noted, that Muir Glacier is crucial, because it is hard to determine the exact time when the ”difficulty bomb” occurs. Their post on Medium reads:

”The timing of when the difficulty bomb begins to kick-in is difficult to estimate. While planning Istanbul, it was first estimated that the bomb would not be noticeable until mid-2020. This implied that it could safely be delayed in the follow-up upgrade to Istanbul. However, those estimates were wrong.”

The community has also announced that the upgrade will be activated only on the Ropsten testnet. The users who have missed the Istanbul hard fork are advised to upgrade their client as soon as possible. According to ethernodes.org 75% of clients seen on network in 24 hours are ready for the upgrade.