Coinbase crashes due to technical issues after Bitcoin touches $63K
The outage caused unbridled speculation over the cause on social media, with opinions ranging from retail entering the market to the exchange getting hacked.
Coinbase is experiencing technical issues that have degraded site performance and caused many users to see a zero balance on their accounts.
The exchange’s website and app are both down as of press time.
Coinbase is also struggling with delayed Ethereum and ERC-20 transactions. Its status website indicates the exchange is aware of the issues and is investigating the cause.
The exchange posted an announcement about the outage to alleviate some of the negative concerns stemming from rampant speculation on social media. The exchange said:
“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.”
Outage speculation
Users started reporting the outage after Bitcoin crossed $60,000 on Feb. 28, causing many to speculate that the outage could result from dormant users returning to the platform amid the market rally.
Others suggested it could be a sign of retail returning to the market and opening new accounts, pointing to the Coinbase outages in 2017, mainly caused by a surge of new users during the bull run. A few even raised concerns that the exchange could have been hacked.
Some jokingly called it a “rug pull” by the exchange, while others said Coinbase crashing was a confirmation of the bull market.