When Bitcoin (BTCUSD) price goes up, cryptocurrency exchanges go down. One casualty of the recent rally in Bitcoin prices has been operations at cryptocurrency exchanges.
Users at North America’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase experienced “connectivity issues” even as Bitcoin crossed the $40,000 mark Thursday. After approximately four hours, the company’s support team tweeted that the supposed issues had been resolved.
Key Takeaways
- Crypto exchanges in the United States reported connectivity issues due to demand after Bitcoin price crossed $40,000.
- Most crypto exchanges have reported operational and connection problems after Bitcoin price skyrockets.
Kraken, another major cryptocurrency exchange, also suffered exchange connection issues due to “heavy loads.” The exchange was back up after three hours. Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, had reported an outage last year when Bitcoin price crossed $20,000.
A Recurring Problem
Disruptions of operations have become a regular feature at Coinbase after Bitcoin price gyrations multiply. The exchange went down after a sharp selloff in cryptocurrency markets during the Bitcoin rally of 2017. As Bitcoin price gathered momentum last year, Coinbase suffered multiple outages. Along with its retail-focused app, the exchange has also reported past issues for its Coinbase Pro offering aimed at institutional investors.
With more users than Charles Schwab, the San Francisco-based company is among the biggest cryptocurrency trading platforms in the world, and downtime there could have a significant effect on trading volumes for Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency’s price has skyrocketed in recent times due to a combination of global macroeconomic instability and institutional interest, leading to an influx of retail investors.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has chalked downtime problems at his exchange to “scaling issues.” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong previously tweeted that the company was investing in additional servers and customer support to ensure that that it could handle increased traffic loads in the future.
That should be good news for investors because the company has filed to go public. The markets will not take kindly to operational problems as Bitcoin price rises due to consumer and institutional demand.