Coinbase, a major cryptocurrency exchange, informed users that the platform was returning to normal operation after encountering a technical problem that displayed zero balances on user accounts.
The technical glitch was attributed to increased traffic following a brief spike in Bitcoin’s price to around $64,000 before dropping back.
Zero Balances Incident on Coinbase
On February 28, several Coinbase users were shocked to find their account balances showing zero funds when they accessed the app. This led to panic and confusion, with some fearing a hack and loss of funds.
I had $3.6 Million on Coinbase
and now it’s shows $0 lol
WTF IS HAPPENING ? pic.com/BaV4pWjFo6
— Ash Crypto (@Ashcryptoreal) February 28, 2024
However, Coinbase assured users that their funds were secure. CEO Brian Armstrong explained that the app’s outage was due to a sudden surge in traffic.
In updates on the Coinbase website, the company acknowledged the zero balance issue and mentioned difficulties in buying and selling. While customer trading improved, the exchange warned that increased traffic might still lead to errors in transactions and payment methods for some users.
The latest update at 13:05 Pacific Standard Time (PST) mentioned, “We are starting to see Coinbase.com activity normalizing. We will continue to monitor our systems and provide updates.”
Armstrong later tweeted that the Coinbase app was “recovering” but noted that the traffic exceeded their expectations, despite preparations for a surge.
Apps are now recovering.
We had modeled a ~10x surge in traffic and load tested it. This exceeded that number.
It’s expensive to keep services over-provisioned, but we’ll need to keep working on auto-scaling solutions, and killing any remaining bottlenecks. Thank you for… https://t.co/JXVppV57AF
— Brian Armstrong 🛡️ (@brian_armstrong) February 28, 2024
The recent trading frenzy followed Bitcoin’s price surge to nearly $64,000, its highest level since November 2021. Bitcoin has slightly decreased and is currently trading over $61,000.
Historical Outages and Market Trends
Observers noted that Coinbase often experiences outages during Bitcoin price surges, a critical time for traders looking to sell assets for profit. Similarly, other major exchanges like Binance have faced technical challenges during market uptrends.
With the upcoming Bitcoin halving event anticipated in April 2024 and other market factors, there is growing optimism around Bitcoin. Price predictions for BTC vary widely, with some analysts, investors, and traders foreseeing values as high as $21 million per Bitcoin.
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