Cryptocurrency crash brings down Binance, WazirX and other exchanges – users fume as orders fail

• There was a snap crash in cryptocurrencies yesterday evening, wiping out $1 trillion of investor wealth in a few hours.
• Bitcoin, the most widely traded cryptocurrency, plunged to $31,000, less than half of its all-time-high of $64,800.
• Users of major cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, Coinbase and WazirX were left fuming after the exchanges crashed.

Cryptocurrencies across the board crashed yesterday (May 19), wiping out nearly $1 trillion worth of investor wealth in the process. The victims of the cryptocurrency crash were not just users and investors alone – some of the largest crypto exchanges also went down after a major spike in traffic.

The list includes big names like Binance, Coinbase, and India’s WazirX, which experienced outages due to a sudden surge in traffic.

Bitcoin nearly halved from its peak to touch $31,000, while Dogecoin and Ethereum also registered more than 25% decline.


WazirX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in India, was also amongst those who went down due to the massive crash. But it was not the sell-off that brought WazirX down – instead, the spike was a result of users wanting to ‘buy the dip,’ the company said.


‘Buy the dip’ is a concept wherein traders and investors buy an asset after a fall in its prices, because they view this as an advantageous time to either get in or add to their existing holdings.


“We’re seeing approximately 400% more traffic than what we witnessed in the previous month,” WazirX’s founder and chief executive Nischal Shetty told Business Insider.

This is not the first time that WazirX has crashed this month – earlier, on May 6, when there was a massive spurt in Dogecoin prices, the platform witnessed a delay in payments and transactions.

WazirX not the only one facing outages

However, WazirX is not the only cryptocurrency exchange that crashed during the Bitcoin crash yesterday. Many global exchanges, including Binance – the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, also experienced outages.


Others in the list include Coinbase and Robinhood, according to Downdetector.

Shetty said that his company is working on a project to address these issues. “To accommodate the rapidly growing traffic and volume, we’re working on an upgrade for the WazirX trading engine named Project Raftaar. We are on track and the first version should be ready soon,” he added.

The reasons behind the crypto crash

Cryptocurrencies across the board saw a major crash after China banned financial institutions and payment companies from enabling or providing any services related to cryptocurrency transactions.

But that’s one piece of the puzzle. The other aspect is the impact of Tesla stating that it will no longer accept Bitcoin as a mode of payment, going back on its earlier announcement.

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