Renowned whistleblower and privacy advocate Edward Snowden used the technical glitch that disrupted trading on the New York Stock Exchange to draw attention to the inherent advantages of cryptocurrencies, notably Bitcoin BTC/USD.
What Happened: Multiple stocks on the NYSE experienced sudden halts during trading hours Monday, with shares of Berkshire Hathaway suffering a shocking 99.7% collapse due to the malfunction.
Responding to the development, Snowden cheekily wrote on X, “Bitcoin fixes this”– the iconic one-liner cryptocurrency enthusiasts frequently use to support the technology.
The idea was to say that blockchain-based assets like Bitcoin will never witness such an abrupt trading halt as traditional finance.
Why It Matters: As a matter of fact, Bitcoin has been one of the most reliable networks, maintaining a 99.99% uptime throughout its history, according to Bitcoin Uptime Tracker. In fact, there have been only two downtime events for the network, with the last downtime occurring more than 10 years ago. Since then, Bitcoin has been up throughput.
That said, the bulk of the trading for Bitcoin happens on centralized exchanges like Binance and Coinbase, which are susceptible to outages. Last month, Coinbase went down for nearly three hours.
Meanwhile, Snowden’s comment reinforced his pro-cryptocurrency stance. Earlier this year, the former National Security Agency contractor called Bitcoin the most significant monetary advancement since the invention of coinage.
The remark could also be directed at Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, known for his anti-Bitcoin stance. Buffett said in 2018, “If you buy something like Bitcoin or some cryptocurrency, you don't have anything that has produced anything. You're just hoping the next guy pays more."
Price Action: At the time of writing, Bitcoin was exchanging hands at $69,270.27, up 0.84% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
Photo via Wikimedia
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