Coinbase, one of the leading Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchanges, experienced a major outage today as the price of Bitcoin skyrocketed, disrupting the accounts of many users. The disruption occurred amid a sharp increase in trading activity following a surge in Bitcoin's price, which briefly surpassed $64,000.
JUST IN: Coinbase has reportedly crashed.
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) February 28, 2024
Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, attributed the outage to a “significant increase in traffic” that overwhelmed the exchange's infrastructure. The sudden influx of users trying to buy, sell or trade Bitcoin has overwhelmed Coinbase's servers, leading to connectivity issues for many customers.
“We are aware that some users may see a zero balance across their Coinbase accounts and may experience errors buying or selling,” Coinbase stated. “Our team is investigating this matter and will provide an update soon. Your assets are safe.”
We are dealing with a significant increase in traffic – we apologize for any issues you are experiencing. The team is working on fixing it.
– Brian Armstrong 🛡️ (@brian_armstrong) February 28, 2024
Following the outage, the price of Bitcoin fell sharply from approximately $64,000 to approximately $59,500, erasing most of the gains Bitcoin made today. Coinbase has experienced similar outages in the past during periods of extreme market volatility, drawing criticism from users and industry observers.
Despite the temporary turmoil, Bitcoin's price appears to have remained resilient, as it is now back above $60,700 at the time of writing, continuing its upward trajectory amid growing institutional adoption and investor interest.
While Coinbase works to restore normal operations, the incident serves as a reminder of the challenges associated with managing large-scale Bitcoin exchanges and the importance of robust infrastructure to ensure uninterrupted service for users.
