Major Crypto Exchanges Binance And Coinbase Down As Crypto Selloff Intensifies, Gas Fees Skyrocket

Major crypto exchanges across the world reported outages as Bitcoin’s price slipped to $30,000.

What Happened: Market-wide fear driven by $4 billion liquidations in the past hours further intensified as panicked sellers were unable to access their accounts on several crypto exchanges.

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, said it had temporarily suspending withdrawals of Ethereum and other ERC-20 tokens due to network congestion.

$ETH and ERC20 withdrawals are temporarily disabled due to network congestion.

Thank you for your patience and apologies for any inconvenience caused. pic.twitter.com/BbECDgDUay

— Binance (@binance) May 19, 2021

Following the congestion on the network, Ethereum ETH/USD gas fees surged once again, with an average ERC-20 transfer costing over $140 and an average swap on Uniswap ranging between $411 and $457.

Binance also reportedly suspended trading and redemption for all Binance leveraged tokens.

U.S crypto exchange Coinbase Global Inc COIN too reported an outage following the steep drop in crypto prices.

“We’re seeing some issues on Coinbase and Coinbase Pro and we’re aware some features may not be functioning completely normal,” the company said in a statement to CNBC. “We’re currently investigating these issues and will provide updates as soon as possible.”

See also: Coinbase Review

Reports of delays and outages were not limited to certain geographies, as one of India’s largest crypto exchanges, WazirX, stated on Twitter that it was looking into issues with its order book, website, and trading delays on the platform.

📢 Reports of delays in app

We've received reports that you're facing delays in trading, viewing order book and trade history on WazirX app and website.

We're investigating the issue and working on a fix. We'll update you as soon as it's done.

Thank you for your support! 🙏

— WazirX: Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency Exchange in India (@WazirXIndia) May 19, 2021

Price Action: Bitcoin BTC/USD briefly touched $32,000, and was trading at $38,572, down 45% from its all-time high of $64,800 last month.

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Ethereum, was also down considerably over the past 24-hours, hitting a low of $1,952 earlier today.

The coin reported an all-time high of $4,362 only last week and has since lost over 43% of its value. It was trading at $2,476