Market News

May 8 (Reuters) - Shares of crypto currency- and blockchain-related companies fell in premarket trading on Monday after Binance halted its bitcoin withdrawals for several hours due to heavy volumes and rising processing fees.

The halts pushed bitcoin , the world's biggest cryptocurrency, down 2% to a one-week low of $27,900.

Crypto exchange Coinbase Inc (COIN.O) fell 4%, while blockchain-farm operator Bitfarms Ltd dropped 4.3%. Crypto miners including Riot Platforms (RIOT.O), Marathon Digital (MARA.O) and Hut 8 Mining (HUT.TO) declined between 4.6% and 7.2%, tracking lower bitcoin prices.

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Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, shut bitcoin withdrawals for an hour late on Sunday and for about three hours on Monday, saying there was a glut of pending transactions because it hadn't offered so-called miners a high enough reward to log the trades on the blockchain.

The company said its set fees did not anticipate the recent surge in bitcoin-network gas fees - the payments made to crypto miners whose computing power processes transactions on the blockchain.

"To prevent a similar recurrence ... our fees have been adjusted," Binance had said.

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In March, the company suspended deposits and withdrawals citing tech issues.

Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath