Coinbase Warns During Times of High Volatility, Access Could Become 'Unavailable' (cityam.com)

An anonymous reader quotes City AM: A leading bitcoin exchange has warned that customers may be unable to get their money out quickly in the event of a crash in the cryptocurrency's price. Writing in a blog post last week, Coinbase's co-founder and chief executive Brian Armstrong, said despite "sizeable and ongoing" increases in the firm's technical infrastructure and engineering staff, access to Coinbase services could become "degraded or unavailable during times of significant volatility or volume. This could result in the inability to buy or sell for period of time," he said.

Armstrong added that there would be restrictions on how much customers could sell, or sell limits, to "protect client accounts and assets"... Bitcoin's market capitalisation rose above $300 billion for the first time earlier this week when its price rocketed to an all-time high of just over $17,000. Many analysts have warned that bitcoin represents an unsustainable bubble, though no one is quite sure when it will burst.

Comments

Circuit Breakers

[DatbeDank]

This is by 100% by design and is intentional.

Look at who backs Coinbase. By conveniently shutting down during a large price swing, they prevent a run on their capitalization which to me speaks volumes as to the quality of the bitcoin exchange.

I already took profits during its initial run-up. Yeah, I missed an opportunity from the freaking 8k to 15k run, but screw it. It's better to leave the casino with a wad of cash than be a basket holder.

I've had some crpyofanboys flame me in another community because I sold so long ago and who seem to think their coins will always be worth several thousand dollars. Here's hoping they make something out of the transaction.

Re:Reasonable

[plopez]

Perhaps the most important knowledge gained is that governments should not and cannot be allowed to control the means of exchange.

Have you been asleep these past 17 years? Did you not see the instability wrought by repealing the Glass-Steagle act? Have you an understanding of the effect such things such as insider trading laws in helping maintain a close semblance of a Free Market in Financial markets?

Are you aware in the 1800's where there was little or no regulation of the markets there were 16 collapses, depressions and panics. In a much smaller economy. Between 1873 and 1896, a period called "The Long Depression" there were 6 of them.

The S&L crisis only occurred after it was deregulation. It destroyed S&Ls, a major competitor of banks, and now they are going after credit unions.

Because it is unregulated when the crash comes the fat cats, the exchanges and insiders, will walk away with huge sums and everyone else gets screwed.

The only way to even approximate a Free Market, a level playing field highly efficient and unbiased, is through regulation. Free Market != unregulated market. Unregulated Market usually means a captured market. That is the problem of libertarianism.