Coinbase – a platform used to buy and sell currency – has temporarily disabled its users from being able to purchase Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies using US dollars.
Users who have attempted to make purchases over the past day have received a message that reads, ‘USD purchases are temporarily disabled,’ while other currencies, including the British pound, are also reported to have been blocked from making purchases.
Coinbase hasn’t commented since its users started getting the message, however the platform has reported experiencing difficulties due a recent surge in interest following a rise in the price of Bitcoin.
It’s unclear whether the temporary issue is related to the technical issues the app has been experiencing, or whether it’s a move from Coinbase to try and slow or restrict purchases.
However, it comes in the wake of trading platform Robinhood suspending sales of hugely popular Reddit stocks, GameStop and AMC, causing concern that similar blockages could be happening with Bitcoin too.
If the latter were to be true, it would be an incredibly unpopular move given all the backlash Robinhood is facing for allegedly protecting hedge fund millionaires at the steak of Reddit investors. Donald Trump Jr, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ted Cruz are among those who have criticised the platform.
One Reddit user has even filed a class action against the platform, after it blocked any further sales of GameStop stock due to ‘volatility of the market’.
Meanwhile, the value of Bitcoin has soared over the past couple of days, after Tesla founder Elon Musk changed his Twitter bio to simply read ‘#bitcoin’.
In just one hour after the multibillionaire updated his profile, the cryptocurrency’s value soared from around $32,000 (£23,500) to above $37,000 (£27,000,) per online trading site Coinbase.
Elsewhere, a cryptocurrency that began as a joke, has also soared in value by 140%, following the recent success of Reddit-fuelled stocks.
Dogecoin, which is based on the popular ‘doge’ meme, saw huge increases after a Reddit thread called SatoshiStreetBets called for the currency to reach the value of $1 per coin.
Again, cryptocurrency fan Musk has touched on the dogecoin, with many Reddit users calling on him to help spread the word about the currency.
Back in April 2019, he tweeted, ‘Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It’s pretty cool,’ later sending its value soaring by 20% when he simply tweeted, ‘doge.’