A surging Bitcoin price between 5:00 and 6:00 pm UTC on Feb. 28 may have caused a disruption in Coinbase services, with widespread reports of accounts suddenly showing a zero balance beginning to populate social media.
As of the time of publication, the apparent bug appears to be ongoing, but Coinbase said funds are safe:
“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.”
The price of Bitcoin surged above $64,000 in the minutes leading up to the incident. However, as of the time of publication, it has retreated to $61,400.
Coinbase (COIN) stock followed a similar trend. As Bitcoin nearly closed in on its current all-time high of $69,045, COIN reached $211 a share, just shy of its 52-week high of $212. It has since fallen back to $202 at the time of publication.
COIN’s all-time-high of $357 coincided with Bitcoin’s, which was set on Nov. 10, 2021.
It’s unclear at this time what caused the issue, but as some users have pointed out, Coinbase users have experienced similar technical issues in the past.
A message shared with Cointelegraph indicated that customer support avenues such as phone and virtual assistant support were unavailable.
In the meantime, approximately 30 minutes after first acknowledging the incident on social media, Coinbase updated its online user interface to display a banner indicating that the issue is ongoing and being investigated.
Cointelegraph reached out to Coinbase for comment but didn’t immediately receive a response.
Source : Cointelegraph / Feb 28, 2024