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Bitcoin (BTC-USD) surged on Wednesday to break above $60,000, putting it within striking distance of its all-time high as enthusiasm for the world’s largest cryptocurrency reached a frenzy last seen during a 2021 boom.
The digital asset climbed as high as $63,900, touching its highest intraday point since November 2021, before dropping back to the $60,000 level amid reports that some users of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN) began showing a $0 balance in their accounts.
Coinbase first said on its website that “we are aware that some users may see a zero balance across their Coinbase accounts and may experience errors in buying or selling” but that “your assets are safe.”
A second update said “we’re beginning to see improvement in customer trading. Due to increased traffic, some customers may still see errors in login, sends, receives and with some payment methods.” A third update offered the assurance that “we are starting to see Coinbase.com activity normalizing.”
Its CEO Brian Armstrong also tried to calm customers Wednesday. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, he first said that “we are dealing with a LARGE surge of traffic — apologies for any issues you encounter. The team is working to remediate.”
Later in the day he said “apps are now recovering” and wrote that the surge in traffic had exceeded what the company had “load tested.”
Before prices pulled back amid the Coinbase snafu, the rally had been pushing closer to bitcoin’s all-time mark of $68,789. That apex came in November 2021, six months before a spectacular crash in 2022.
“Ultimately, what we’re seeing is crypto is kind of rising from the ashes of the 2022 market,” said Ryan Rasmussen, a senior crypto research analyst for Bitwise Asset Management.
Bitcoin is riding a wave of excitement sparked by a series of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds that started trading in January. Those funds gave everyday investors widespread exposure to the digital asset, triggering predictions of a new bull run.
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