The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that starting in the 2027-2028 school year, students eligible for free or reduced-price school meals will no longer be charged processing fees, which can significantly increase costs for low-income families. This decision follows a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report highlighting the financial burden these fees place on families, with some paying up to 60 cents per dollar in fees. The USDA aims to reduce costs for families earning under 185% of federal poverty guidelines and is working towards providing free healthy school meals for all children.
Shares of cryptocurrency- and blockchain-related companies, including Coinbase, Bitfarms, Riot Platforms, Marathon Digital, and Hut 8 Mining, fell in early trading hours on Monday after Binance halted its bitcoin withdrawals for several hours due to heavy volumes and rising processing fees. 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.
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, halted bitcoin withdrawals for several hours on Monday due to heavy volumes and a surge in processing fees. The exchange cleared pending transactions at a higher cost after shutting down withdrawals twice. Binance said its set fees did not anticipate the recent surge in bitcoin network gas fees and that it was replacing the pending bitcoin withdrawal transactions with a higher fee so that they get picked up by mining pools.
