Update 9:00 am UTC: Crypto.com App is back online and is fully functional. However, the Exchange remains under maintenance.
Crypto.com, the leading crypto payment platform, paused its deposits, withdrawals, and trading on its exchange and app on September 20, 6:00 pm UTC. According to the official tweet, the funds are safe. The system is down due to temporary system maintenance. However, even after nine hours, the system is still down and the users are panicking.
On September 20, Crypto.com had to shut down its system quickly in response to the platform-specific ETH/USDT price manipulation. The step was taken to protect the exchange and user funds as some illegitimate traders tried to exploit the outage.
Are the funds safe?
At around 6:00 pm UTC, the token price of Ethereum on the Crypto.com system skyrocketed to over $79,000 and coins were swapped. According to Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek, an unknown issue in the exchange database led to the outage.
Some users took advantage of this outage and manipulated the ETH/USDT price. In his tweet, Kris Marszalek also shared that these users were able to lock in gains. They sold ETH to other coins in groups. However, when these users tried to withdraw the funds, they were stopped by the risk system. Thus, the monetary loss incurred by Crypto.com is negligible.
Update on the overnight system maintenance:
1. Funds are safe.
2. The maintenance will likely take 24-48 hours
What happened? See thread below.— Kris | Crypto.com (@Kris_HK) September 21, 2020
At the time of press, the Crypto.com users are facing different login issues.
According to the tweet, the maintenance might take 24-48 hours. Users are panicking as 24 hours is a long time in crypto space.
Meanwhile, CRO price is down by almost 3.6% in the last 24 hours. However, just one hour prior to the outage, CRO witnessed a sharp price decline of 10% and recovered within the next hour.
What is the resolution?
Before the system goes back online, the team needs to reverse the illegitimate trades and restore the balances. The team is working 24/7 to fix the issue. According to Kris Marszalek, the process is complex and time-consuming, therefore the downtime is expected to be somewhere between 24-48 hours.
Right now, some users are not able to log in and some are seeing zero balances in their accounts. On the other hand, for some, the transfers are stuck, while others are seeing “http 403 error” after typing their pin.
However, the team is trying to control the panic levels as it is communicating actively with the users and assuring them that all funds are safe.
This can happen during maintenance. Please allow the team some time to work on the maintenance, and you'll be able to login to your account normally 😉
— CRO Addicted (@CROaddicted) September 20, 2020
As a leading credit-card lender, the Crypto.com user count soared up to three million in 2020. Last week, it also announced instant cashback up to 8% for its users. Moreover, the company is known for its hardened security and best services. We believe things will be sorted for the users very soon.
For more regular crypto updates, do check out the Altcoin Buzz YouTube channel.