$100 Bln Wiped Off In Bitcoin Market Cap

The recent Coinbase app outage triggered a staggering $100 billion loss in Bitcoin (BTC) market cap within a mere 15 minutes. Though the issue has been fixed, the Coinbase outage brought massive volatility into the crypto market today. However, Bitcoin bounced back after the sudden downfall and sustained above the $62,000 mark.

Coinbase Outage Sends Shockwaves Through Crypto Space

According to a post on X by The Kobeissi Letter, between 12:15 p.m. ET and 12:30 p.m. ET on February 28, the Bitcoin price plummeted from $64,000 to $59,000, marking a nearly 9% swing. The pullback could be attributed to Coinbase being down as its users found themselves staring at a $0 balance in their accounts.

This disruption unfolded just as Bitcoin was just 10% away from a new all-time high, intensifying the shockwaves rippling through the cryptocurrency community. Moreover, the Coinbase outage led to a lot of hate comments being directed at the crypto exchange.

At press time, the Bitcoin price was up by 5.70%, settling at $62,627.55 on Wednesday, February 29. The crypto boasted a market cap of $1.22 trillion, bouncing back from the recent losses. In addition, the BTC market cap soared by a whopping 105.26% to $92.27 billion. The Bitcoin price attained a high of $63,913.13 before the recent pullback and rebound frenzy.

Also Read: Coinbase Suffers Technical Glitch Amid Ascending Bitcoin Price

CEO Brian Armstrong Says The Issue Has Been Fixed

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong attributed the outage to the unprecedented inflows into the crypto market lately. In a post on X, Armstrong noted that the “apps are now recovering.” He highlighted that the team had been ready for a 10x surge in volume, however, the reality exceeded expectations owing to the Bitcoin rally and the Coinbase app crashed.

The Coinbase CEO underscored that the cost factor plays a major role in the website and app maintenance. He said, “It’s expensive to keep services over-provisioned, but we’ll need to keep working on auto-scaling solutions, and killing any remaining bottlenecks.” Whilst, he appreciated the users’ patience when Coinbase was down and stated, “Thank you for bearing with us.”

However, users spotlighted the app’s poor maintenance and bashed Armstrong for not taking adequate actions. They highlighted that other crypto exchanges that offer similar services like spot and derivatives trading didn’t witness an outage, emphasizing Coinbase’s inefficiency.

Also Read: Bitcoin (BTC) Price: MicroStrategy’s Unrealized Profit Hits $5.7B High