Coinbase scrambles to restore digital wallets after some customers saw $0 in their accounts

Coinbase apps are "recovering" after some customers opened their digital accounts to find them showing zero balances, CEO Brian Armstrong said Wednesday afternoon. 

The cryptocurrency exchange acknowledged the issue earlier Wednesday after users reported difficulties making trades and that their accounts were empty. 

"Apps are now recovering," Armstrong said on X (formerly known as Twitter). "We had modeled a ~10x surge in traffic and load tested it. This exceeded that number."

He added that it's "expensive" to keep the company's services "over-provisioned," meaning overloading an app to test its capacity and make sure it can handle surges in traffic.  

The company had posted about the issue earlier in the day. 

"We are aware that some users may see a zero balance across their Coinbase accounts & may experience errors in buying or selling. Our team is investigating this & will provide an update shortly. Your assets are safe," the company said on X.

We are aware that some users may see a zero balance across their Coinbase accounts & may experience errors in buying or selling. Our team is investigating this & will provide an update shortly. Your assets are safe.
You can track this incident at https://t.co/a3pl4WiDhZ

— Coinbase Support (@CoinbaseSupport) February 28, 2024

Coinbase  included a link to its website where customers can track the status of the incident. 

"We're beginning to see improvement in customer trading," the company said in an update on its site. "Due to increased traffic, some customers may still see errors in login, sends, receives and with some payment methods. Rest assured your funds are safe."

On social media, some cryptocurrency traders who use Coinbase said the glitch has eroded their trust in the platform. One user pointed out that the errors were occurring at "a key time in the market," given that bitcoin prices have surged in recent days and topped $60,000 on Thursday. 

In:
• Bitcoin
• Coinbase

Megan Cerullo

Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News Streaming to discuss her reporting.