The bitcoin price suffered a cataclysmic – and sudden – crash on Wednesday, and one of the world’s most prominent cryptocurrency exchanges failed to handle the load of users scrambling to salvage their portfolios.
Bitcoin Price Crashes More Than $2,000 on Bitstamp
After ascending as high as $13,880 earlier today on Bitstamp, a parabolic bitcoin price endured a sudden sell-off. A wave of sell pressure rocked the market at approximately 4:30 pm ET, sending BTC careening downwards.
Within 15 minutes, the flagship cryptocurrency had crashed as low as $11,853, representing a 15% plunge from its intraday high.
Coinbase Suffers Dreaded Outage
Traders who rushed to Coinbase to attempt to salvage their profits – or buy the perceived dip – found themselves out of luck, as the premiere US cryptocurrency exchange suffered one of the dreaded outages that so frequently roiled traders during the 2017 bull run – and the early market 2018 collapse.
Coinbase is down. Bitcoin never goes down. pic.twitter.com/ZnxHidOig3
— Peter McCormack (@PeterMcCormack) June 26, 2019
As of 5:17 pm ET, Coinbase reported that it had implemented a fix for the outage and continued to monitor the results.
The bitcoin price, meanwhile, last traded at $12,180.
Click here for a real-time bitcoin price chart.