Coinbase said a considerable number of new users have registered on the exchange, prompting a halt in operations temporarily, in a tweet early Wednesday morning Hong Kong time, while the crypto exchange claimed it has limited exposure to the underwater crypto exchange FTX.
See related article: Markets: Bitcoin hits year low, Ether slumps as Binance rescue of FTX unnerves investors
Fast facts
- Coinbase, this second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by spot trading volume with over 108 million users, claimed on a Tuesday blog post that it had “no exposure” to FTX’s token FTT, no loans to FTX, no exposure to FTX’s sister company Alameda Research, and the only tie to FTX was a US$15 million deposit on the cryptocurrency exchange.
- According to crypto media outlet Decrypt, Coinbase encountered an operation halt at 12:03 a.m. Hong Kong time, just right at the time that FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried announced the acquisition on Twitter.
- Meanwhile, another cryptocurrency exchange, Kraken, also encountered a halt at around 1 a.m. Hong Kong time.
- Early Wednesday morning, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced its planned acquisition of FTX at a time when the latter was hit by US$6 billion in withdrawals in 72 hours.
See related article: Binance buys FTX: Updates on what it means for the crypto industry