Crypto Prices Go Haywire On CoinMarketCap; Hack Suspected

Shortly before 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, one of the world's biggest cryptocurrency websites went haywire, with wildly inaccurate prices appearing on the site, and with several relatively unknown coins listed in the top 10.

CoinMarketCap began showing the massive numbers for assets like Bitcoin BTC/USD, which was priced at $789,432,690,634.70, while Ethereum ETH/USD showed up as being worth $38,884,629,258.24 each. Meanwhile, the site listed the top crypto in the market as Cocos-BCX COCOS at a price of $25,241,256.57.

Other coins that were erroneously listed in the top 10 were Sora XOR/USD at a price of $274,807,219,254.69 and Hex HEX/USD ranked as the 10th biggest crypto and priced at $610,947.85.

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CoinMarketCap acknowledged the issue via its Twitter account and said the problem is being addressed.

Our website is currently undergoing Price Issues

The Engineering team is aware of incorrect price information appearing on https://t.co/3AD93ocjMp.

We are currently investigating and will update this status when we have more information. 👍 🙏

— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) December 14, 2021

There was an instant reaction on Twitter with some suggesting the website was hacked.

BREAKING: #Coinmarketcap hacked as almost all cryptocurrencies 'surge' by trillions of percent.#SHIB #DOGE #ETH #XRP #BTC pic.twitter.com/VmeR07aiTh

— Mr. Whale (@CryptoWhale) December 14, 2021

Some on Twitter were quick to make light of the situation.

When the boomers see the @CoinMarketCap glitch and panic sell #CoinMarketCap pic.twitter.com/4i65xcgTUl

— Brandon (@RevivalBran) December 14, 2021

Other crypto websites and exchanges were not affected, as Coingecko and Coinbase retained accurate price information.