So as many of you may know, Coinbase was down for the majority of this afternoon. It was due to a rise in high volume from the fall of Bitcoin and the rise of Etherium.
As the Bitcoin price fell more than 22 percent ($2965 to $2300) , investors rushed to sell the currency and either take their earnings, or buy Etherium (Etherium hit a new high of $408). This caused an influx of volume that Coinbase could not handle. On the other end of the spectrum, long term investors were rushing to buy the low price of Bitcoin (as seen in the rise afterwards). Due to this high volume, their site was forced to temporarily shutdown.
As of the time of writing this article, Coinbase is now back up and running. This goes to show that online wallets are never 100% secure. If there was any lesson learned today, it's to always have your money stored in a safe place (such as a ledger wallet or paper wallet), so if this ever happens again, you'll be able to quickly access it.
IMPORTANT NOTE: For those who didn't know, the mobile app for Coinbase was still working even when the website was down. You could still access your money!
Always make sure to double check any secondary sources when something like this happens. Have a backup plan and never invest what you aren't prepared to lose. Until next time, stay safe, and happy investing!
