Coinbase users worldwide were left with $0 crypto balances once again as Bitcoin reached a new high of over $67,000 for the first time in more than two years.
As Bitcoin set a 28-month high on Mar. 4, the popular crypto exchange Coinbase faced its second outage in less than a week amidst the excitement in the cryptocurrency market. The crypto fear and greed index reached 82, indicating strong interest from users and traders.
During the first outage of the year on Feb. 28, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong mentioned that the platform was ready to handle 10 times the usual traffic. However, the exchange experienced higher usage than anticipated as Bitcoin surged upwards.
The recent outage suggests that increased platform activity caused the Coinbase downtime, coinciding with Bitcoin’s 6% surge in just 24 hours. Despite the inconvenience, the platform reassured users that their funds were safe and that engineers were working to restore normal operations.
We are aware some users may experience increased latency across Coinbase.com and a few users may see intermittent zero balance. Rest assured, your funds are safe. Our team is investigating this issue and will provide an update. Trading is not impacted at this time. – Coinbase support
Customers expressed dissatisfaction with the situation, highlighting concerns about the exchange’s readiness to handle heavy traffic during a bull cycle. Social media posts reflected more worry about a major exchange temporarily crashing due to increased transactions with rising market prices.
As the situation unfolds, it raises questions about the need for greater investments in server capacity to ensure smoother operations during peak trading periods. Customers, investors, and the broader crypto community all deserve a better experience.
This is a developing story and highlights the importance of robust infrastructure in the crypto space, particularly as Bitcoin continues on its price discovery journey.