Reports on social media indicate that some Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) accounts are spontaneously cratering to zero. In a statement on X, Coinbase said they are aware of the issue and tell account holders their assets are fine. Coinbase describes itself as the “most trusted crypto exchange.”
Coinbase support states:
“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.”
Since the statement on X, Coinbase says they are seeing improvements and customer logins have recovered, but due to high traffic, some users are still seeing errors.
Again, Coinbase states that “rest assured your funds are safe.”
Coinbase founder and CEO Brian Armstrong attributed the issue to a surge in traffic claiming they had modeled a 10X surge and currently they are experiencing more than that.
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
Of course, X is full of erstwhile customers complaining about the operational failure at Coinbase which arrives during one of the biggest bull runs in Bitcoin’s history.
Nothing better than waking up to a “zero balance” account during one of the biggest market pumps in years.
— Mishaboar (@mishaboar) February 28, 2024
While expectations are that Coinbase will soon have its house in order and accounts will be available once again, it is situations like this that provide fodder for crypto detractors – most importantly, policymakers. There remain a good number of elected and appointed officials in the US who hate crypto and would like to see its demise.
As for shares in Coinbase, which have recently seen a jump in value, they are currently hovering around break even for the day but up by around 30% for the week.
DON’T DO THIS TO ME RN @COINBASE !!! pic.twitter.com/2O4HqCdAaD
— Tiffany Fong (@TiffanyFong_) February 28, 2024
