Cryptocurrency exchanges report blackouts as bitcoin prices lead the digital currency free fall
(Kitco News) – Major volatility in cryptocurrencies as prices see significant declines is impacting digital currency exchanges.
According to reports, Coinbase (Nasdaq COIN), the publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange, was shut down Wednesday.
“We’re seeing some issues on Coinbase and Coinbase Pro and we’re aware some features may not be functioning completely normal. We’re currently investigating these issues and will provide updates as soon as possible,” Coinbase said in a statement.
The service distruption has not been good for the company’s share price, which down moe than 8% on the day, last trading at $219 per share.
However, Coinbase is not the only exchange to experience a blackout. Other exchanges like Binance, Kraken, Gemini, and Kucoin are all reporting outages. According to reports, the issues are focused around the withdrawals of Etherium and ERC-20 tokens.
“$ETH and ERC20 withdrawals are temporarily disabled due to network congestion,” both Binance and Kucoin said in statements on Twitter.
$ETH and ERC20 withdrawals are temporarily disabled due to network congestion.
Thank you for your patience and apologies for any inconvenience caused. pic.twitter.com/BbECDgDUay
— Binance (@binance) May 19, 2021
The exchange outages also come as bitcoin continues to see significant selling pressure, falling below $40,000 per token. While off its session lows, bitcoin is still seeing some selling pressure, trading at its lowest point since February. Spot bitcoin prices last traded around $35,000 a token.
Bitcoin prices have fallen more than 46% since hitting record highs last week, around $65,000 an tocken.
While digital currencies are free-falling, the gold market is catching a bid due to growing safe-haven demand. Since the start of the year, many analysts have noted that strong bullish momentum in cryptocurrencies had taken some of the shine off gold, but that trend now appears to be reversing.
June gold futures last traded at $1,885.50 an ounce, up almost 1% on the day.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
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