The price of world’s largest cryptocurrency tumbled more than $1,700 in 15 minutes on Wednesday afternoon, after the sudden downtime of website of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
Just after reaching a 17-month high above the usd13,700 earlier on Tuesday, a sink in bitcoin price below the $12,000 level, and it was trading around $12,700 as of 11:30 p.m. Eastern.
A notice displayed on the Coinbase’s website that “An error has occurred. We’ve been notified about the issue and are taking a look.” The website appeared to be working again by 5:15 p.m. Eastern. According to the site’s status page, the issue was “resolved” around 5:40 p.m. Eastern and all functions appeared operational.
While these moves of bitcoin, the analysts largely attributed that the bitcoin bounce to more interest, in the space following Facebook’s announcement of a cryptocurrency project, that is a key to technical levels being broken, and also a safe haven buying amidst increasing global tensions.
“The scale of the recent appreciation is striking,” Jim Reid, Deutsche Bank’s multi-asset analyst, said in a note to clients Wednesday. “Obviously recent dovishness from central banks has seen investors look towards alternative currencies, but perhaps Facebook’s unveiling of its Libra currency has seen investors look again at cryptocurrencies with fresh eyes.”
Facebook’s cryptocurrency project “Libra,” which is expected to go live in 2020, will not be controlled or fully run by the tech company, according to its white paper. Stripe, Uber, Mastercard, Visa, PayPal and Spotify are among the dozens of others with stakes in the project.
