Mexican exchange Bitso has imposed mandatory withdrawal fees for Bitcoin transactions at a fixed rate of 0.0005 BTC.

In an announcement through its blog on May 12, Bitso Operations and Customer Support Manager Paco Martinez said staff had taken the decision “due to huge changes and growth that Bitcoin has been experiencing in recent months, which has resulted in transaction fees increasing significantly worldwide.”

“This is a common practice in the industry and some other portfolios and exchanges charge this commission dynamically, usually higher than the fixed commission that will set Bitso,” he continued.

The rise in Bitcoin network transaction fees throughout 2017 has already seen multiple businesses adjust their fees or functionality to guard against financial uncertainty.

In a significant alteration to its use case, BitPay previously raised its minimum invoice amount from 4 cents to $1, preventing merchants from accepting smaller payments - or larger micropayments - using its service.

Bitso’s fixed fee is currently equal to around $0.85, while the average network transaction fee is currently double that at $1.71 according to data from BitInfoCharts.

Mexico’s LocalBitcoins volumes, meanwhile, surged to a new high last week, demonstrating that even the broadly less favorable exchange rate offered by the platform’s users has not deterred eager traders.

Statistics gathered by Coin Dance showed multiple record highs for the week ending May 13, with LocalBitcoins seeing its highest ever overall volumes.

Bitso confirmed it would not be profiting from the withdrawal fee.