Ripples of fear spread through the cryptocurrency world Wednesday after the largest crypto exchange told customers they had no money.
Coinbase explained the issue in a post on social media platform X.
“We are aware that some users may see a zero balance across their Coinbase accounts & may experience errors in buying or selling. Our team is investigating this & will provide an update shortly. Your assets are safe,” Coinbase posted.
We are aware that some users may see a zero balance across their Coinbase accounts & may experience errors in buying or selling. Our team is investigating this & will provide an update shortly. Your assets are safe.
You can track this incident at https://t.co/a3pl4WiDhZ— Coinbase Support (@CoinbaseSupport) February 28, 2024
By late afternoon, a semblance of normal operations was returning, the exchange posted.
“We continue to see improvement in customer trading. Customer login has recovered & we’re seeing intermittent improvements in sends. Due to continued heightened traffic customers may still see errors in receives & with some payment methods. Rest assured your funds are safe,” Coinbase posted, later posting that activity was “normalizing.”
We are starting to see https://t.co/ohqDivlp6Y activity normalizing. We will continue to monitor our systems and provide updates. https://t.co/YCabqERcCW
— Coinbase Support (@CoinbaseSupport) February 28, 2024
At midday, the website DownDetector noted that there were more than 9,200 complaints that Coinbase’s site was not functioning properly.
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According to Axios, heavy trading and volatility in the crypto market were possible links to the glitch.
Coinbase’s woes came on the same day when the value of Bitcoin skyrocketed to its highest level since 2021, an increase of about $7,000 in 24 hours.
The spike put the value of Bitcoin at $64,000, but after the Coinbase glitch, Bitcoin tumbled back to $59,000, according to Bitcoin Magazine.
Bitcoin’s value later climbed back to over $60,000
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on X that Coinbase experienced a “large surge of traffic,” leading the the problem.
Coinbase struggling with user traffic
Interesting months ahead! pic.twitter.com/a5lpJI1Kbj
— Vet 🏴☠️ (@Vet_X0) February 28, 2024
Bitcoin magazine explained that “The sudden influx of users attempting to buy, sell, or trade Bitcoin overwhelmed Coinbase’s servers, leading to connectivity issues for many customers.”
Forbes noted that Bitcoin has rebounded in value this year.
Bitcoin’s all-time peak in value was $68,000 in November 2021, but it had dropped in value to less than $16,000 by November 2022.
