Bitcoin’s upward trajectory was temporarily derailed as service interruptions at several cryptocurrency exchanges caused prices to drop more than US$1,800 [AU$2,576] in less than twenty minutes.
The first crypto exchange to go down was San Francisco-based Coinbase, who reported “degraded performance” issues at 4:47 pm EST that appeared to affect the platform’s website, mobile apps, and API service.
The Bitcoin market reacted swiftly to the news as prices – which had climbed as high as $13,890 earlier today – fell sharply.
Immediately before Coinbase’s outage, Bitcoin had been trading at around $13,756. Less than 20 minutes later, the cryptocurrency had dropped to $11,882 – a loss of $1,874.
Prices began to rebound almost immediately, gaining more than $900 in just minutes before another crypto exchange outage sent prices falling once again.
Fellow California-based exchange Robinhood was the second exchange to go down, reporting the same “degraded performance” issues that Coinbase experienced a mere 13 minutes prior.
The Robinhood outage sparked a temporary panic among many of its users who reported seeing their portfolio values dropping.
The exchange was quick to reassure customers, however, posting on Twitter that it was due to cryptocurrencies being excluded from portfolio valuations while it worked to resolve the issue.
If you notice your portfolio value dropping, that’s because we’ve disabled crypto from portfolio valuations for the time being as we resolve this issue.
This does not reflect your true portfolio value. Once we resolve, your portfolio value should be accurate again.
— Robinhood Help (@AskRobinhood) June 26, 2019
The Coinbase outage was resolved and service restored in less than an hour, while Robinhood, which had been back up and running, reported moments ago that “residual issues” stemming from the earlier outage made it necessary to disable crypto trading on the platform for approximately 30 minutes.
Crypto trading on Robinhood Crypto will be down temporarily for 30 minutes starting at 5:15pm PST. This is to resolve residual issues from the recent outage. Thanks again for your patience.
— Robinhood Help (@AskRobinhood) June 26, 2019
Hong Kong-based Bitfinex was also down for several hours today, however, the exchange’s status page notes that it was a planned outage to allow for a “platform upgrade designed to enhance the stability and scalability of the iFinex matching engine.”
Bitcoin continues to re-gain lost ground and is currently trading at $13,199.