Over the weekend the price of bitcoin has skyrocketed. It went from $584 on Saturday, $642 on Sunday, and to $703 USD as of this writing on Monday, a $119 increase in 48 hours.

With the huge spike, it seems that bitcoin exchanges are having a hard time keeping up with the volume.

Exchanges are crashing

Two bitcoin exchanges are having issues. Namely Coinbase and Circle. There have been recent reports from users about issues where the bitcoin startups aren’t able to fill customer orders. To be completely fair and exact, these two exchanges are acting as brokerages to fill orders, meaning they aren’t trading platforms so liquidity can become an issue during high demand periods. Just because there is high volume doesn’t always mean there is liquidity, a new report shows.

Coinbase does have their GDAX trading platform but users having issues are encountering them on the Coinbase.com site.

The high demand is a reminder of earlier times in bitcoin, especially during the 2013 rally where prices reached an all time high exceeding $1100 USD per bitcoin. At the time Coinbase experienced the same issues where the site would crash during the heaviest times due to liquidity issues.

It appears this is a good problem to have (higher demand than supply), which is helping to drive the price up.

David Shares

David is a writer, researcher, and developer who is passionate about bitcoin and blockchain. He writes for Bitcoin.com, Blockchain.com, and is the founder of Bitcoinx.io (which was acquired by Bitcoin.com). David previously used to write and curate for Myspace and has worked in the fintech and payments space for over 15 years.

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