Coinbase Outage Triggers Chaos as Bitcoin Surges Past $85,000

Coinbase suffered an unexpected outage on September 21 as Bitcoin surged past $85,000, causing frustration for traders who were unable to buy or sell.

The exchange acknowledged the problem at 4:21 p.m. PDT and initially estimated that customer funds remained safe despite the disruption.

However, nearly $919 million in crypto short positions were liquidated during the rally, with more than half of that amount tied to Bitcoin.

Coinbase eventually restored affected services about 70 minutes after acknowledging the incident, but not before many traders had lost their chance to react to rapidly changing prices.