Notice Regarding Upcoming STEEM Network Upgrade
In the spirit of transparency, Binance has received a request to upgrade the STEEM network to version 0.23, a hard-fork which includes the following:
An update to reduce the power down (un-staking) time parameter from 13 weeks to 4 weeks, and
Blacklisting of 65 accounts which collectively hold 23.6 million STEEM (currently ~$5 million USD at the time of writing), effectively removing their balances from the STEEM blockchain.
Binance would like to confirm that we do not condone this type of behavior and believe that blockchains should not be used as a tool for censorship or editing user balances. Since receiving the request on May 15th, 2020, Binance decided not to initiate the upgrade, meaning that we have been unable to sync up to the latest STEEM block height, and as such, deposits and withdrawals of STEEM have remained suspended.
However, this decision has negatively affected all of our existing users that hold STEEM, and is not a long-term solution, as they are currently unable to move their tokens on the blockchain. Thus, in the interest of our users currently holding STEEM, Binance has decided to support this upgrade to provide users with the freedom to use their STEEM tokens as they see fit.
As a further response to the above, Binance plans to reduce STEEM trading pairs from the current 3 pairs down to 1 pair over the next two months.
Thanks for your support!
Binance Team
2020/05/23