Bitcoin Growing Pains Even More Pronounced as Price Takes a Dive

Coinbase says all buying and selling was temporarily disabled
Bitcoin network transaction fees surge to a record $55

Bitcoin’s pullback is "very healthy," says Tom Lee, head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, (Source: Bloomberg)

Provide news feedback or report an error

Confidential tip?

Send a tip to our reporters

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

By Camila Russo

December 22, 2017 at 4:55 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

The growing pains of exchanges crashing and transaction times slowing down experienced during the surge in bitcoin are proving to be much more painful on the way down.

Coinbase, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, said all buying and selling was temporarily disabled during today’s rout, after having delays in processing wire transfers and verifying new customers for the past week due to higher traffic. Bitcoin transaction volume jumped more than 30 percent on Coinbase’s GDAX exchange, while fees to approve and record the transactions on the blockchain surged to a record $55, according to Bit Info Charts.