Coinbase claims full recovery after system-wide outage

US crypto exchange Coinbase has been grappling with a “system-wide outage” since 12:15 am ET earlier today, rendering its services inaccessible to users attempting to access the platform via desktop or mobile.

The exchange has been regularly updating its official status page and social media channels, assuring users that their funds remain secure. In its latest post on X, the exchange says that it has “fully recovered” from the incident.

Despite this, users are still reporting access issues to Coinbase’ platform, with some requesting X for community notes on the matter. Community notes on X is a user-driven feature where contributors are allowed to provide context, fact-checks, and helpful information under posts, images, or videos with the aim of countering disinformation by allowing users from different perspectives to collaboratively contribute notes.

Due to the outage, users attempting to visit the Coinbase website have been met with a “503 Service Temporarily Unavailable” error message, indicating that the servers are either down for maintenance or overloaded.

The status page has shown progress through the various stages of addressing the outage, from investigating to identifying the problem and monitoring the effectiveness of the implemented fix. Despite the challenges, Coinbase has maintained transparency about its troubleshooting process and has reiterated that all user funds are safe.

By 4:16 AM ET, the status page stated that a fix has been implemented and results after the fix are being monitored. Some 42 minutes later, the page stated that the Coinbase team is still “currently” investigating the issue, implying that the implemented fix did not work out as planned.

This is not the first time Coinbase has experienced an outage. On February 28, the exchange, along with several others, suffered temporary outages due to a rapid uptick in crypto trading activity during a Bitcoin (BTC) flash crash that saw the asset price fall nearly 10% before spiking back up. This happened again as Bitcoin reached the $67K level during the first week of March 2024.

While outages can be frustrating for users, some in the crypto community view surges in traffic that cause extended periods of downtime as a bullish sign, indicating increased interest and activity in the cryptocurrency market.