BitBay Suffers Unexplained Downtime, Leaves Users in the Dark

Estonia-based BitBay updated users of the downtime via Twitter earlier today. Typically, such exchange outages occur during periods of massive cryptocurrency price volatility. However, that doesn’t seem to be there case here.

BitBay Offline with “Complicated” but Unexplained Issues

European cryptocurrency exchange BitBay first alerted users to issues today at around 09:00 GMT. The firm posted the following via Twitter:

Dear Users, a network problem of our external service provider has occurred. 🙁 🙁 Please be patient. We are in touch with the provider and working to resolve the problem. We apologize for the inconvenience.

— BitBay (@BitBay) March 26, 2020

Users of the BitBay service, likely with funds trapped on the exchange, responded to the above requesting more details. When asked about a service page or a way to ensure that users could receive alerts in a timely manner, the company simply responded:

“We’ll let you know!”

One follower suggested that the lack of information may hint that the exchange has pulled an “exit scam” — disappearing with all its users’ cash. Meanwhile, efforts to determine the identity of the “network provider” that apparently is at the heart of the problem were ignored by the exchange. In terms of additional correspondence with its users, BeInCrypto was unable to locate any other than a message posted to the exchange’s official website. It reads:

“Technical work is ongoing. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Subsequent Update Shines Little Light on Situation

Around four hours after the original tweet this morning, the exchange updated its users to the ongoing situation. It states that the issue was “more complicated” than initially thought. The exchange still apparently hasn’t quite got the situation under control but appears to be putting some systems back online to allow traders to cancel orders. BitBay also says it will keep users updated. However, given its lack of service page or even a blog post to assuage users that their money is safe, it remains to be seen how detailed any future updates on the situation will be:

Unfortunately, the problem turned out to be more complicated than we initially thought. We plan to launch the platform with the blocked possibility of transaction processing. You will have time to cancel or add offers. We will keep you updated on the situation. Thank you!

— BitBay (@BitBay) March 26, 2020

Previously, BeInCrypto has reported on numerous examples of exchanges dropping their service. Typically, but not always, these outages occur during huge periods of volatility for the cryptocurrency markets. If prices move dramatically, interest in either buying or selling crypto assets increases hugely too. Understandably, exchange traffic soars and inferior services give way under the strain. Given the lack of extreme volatility today, it seems that BitBay’s issues may relate to something altogether different than simple overuse though.