Popular cryptocurrency exchange service Crypto.com reported today that the platform had paused deposits, withdrawals and trading on its exchange and mobile app to undergo maintenance. The company reiterated that users’ funds are safe and that trading will resume within 24-48 hours.
The outage was initially reported by Crypto.com’s COO Eric Anziani as temporary system maintenance but has now lasted longer than users would have initially thought.
CEO Kris Marszalek subsequently published a longer thread that sought to explain the reason for the outage. Per the CEO, the exchange platform suffered a database issue that the team is still investigating to find the root cause.
However, the issue had allowed some users to manipulate the ETH/USDT price on the platform, after which they attempted to take profits by selling into other coins and attempting a withdrawal. The risk system used by the exchange played a significant part in halting sudden withdrawals, with monetary losses from price manipulation labeled by the CEO as “negligible.”
The way forward will be for the exchange to reverse illegitimate trades and refund user balances before trading reopens once again.
Update on Overnight System Maintenance:
1. Funds are safe.
2. The maintenance will likely take 24-48 hours
What happened? See thread below.— Kris | Crypto.com (@Kris_HK) September 21, 2020
Despite assurances that funds are safe, angry users are already speculating about the possibility of the outage being a hack, perhaps as in the case of Binance in 2019, when a 7000 BTC hack initially sent the exchange into temporary maintenance mode. But there is no evidence to back any such claim in the latest Crypto.com outage.
Meanwhile, the exchange’s native token, CRO, has also not significantly decreased in the hours leading up to press time. The token is still ninth on CoinMarketCap‘s list of largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, trading at $0.16, with a market cap above $3.2 billion.
Last week, Crypto.com announced it had severed all ties with Wirecard and adopted Payrnet as its new UK/EU MCO Card issuer.
