Coinbase Suspended Trading as Cryptocurrency Crashes

One of the most popular sites to trade cryptocurrency, Coinbase, had suspended all trading activity on Friday after cryptocurrency prices crashed.

The website had a statement that read, “Due to today’s high traffic, buys and sells may be temporarily offline. We’re working on restoring full availability as soon as possible.”

Bitcoin, which is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, fell hard on Friday, falling over $4,000. This was the

biggest drop on a percentate basis that the digital currency had seen all year.

Bitcoin has been on a wild ride this year, rising from a little under $1000 in January to as high as almost $20,000 this last Sunday. The digital currency hit $19,800 that day.

According to Coindesk.com, bitcoin dropped to under $11,000 on Friday morning but rebounded to about $12,000.

Bitcoin is now down 47% from its record high this year.

There was no reasoning behind the massive swing in price. According to Alex Sunnarborg, a founding partner at cryptofund Tetras Capital, “I would say the drop in bitcoin is a result of the massive new inflows of retail investors who are relatively ‘weak hands’ and more prone to sell at the sight of falling prices than the capital that has been in the system for a while that has a longer term outlook.”