Crypto Exchange Giant Went Offline

Earlier today, the cryptocurrency exchange platform Binance went temporarily offline, citing “server issues” and maintenance.

“Due to an unforeseen slowdown in the speed of our data sync, we now estimate for all trading activity to resume at 2018/02/09 4AM (UTC). In the 30 minutes prior to the commencement of trading, users will be able to use utilize all other account related functions,” the company tweeted.

Since the maintenance was not scheduled, many traders were left in the middle of trades, unable to execute orders and withdraw or deposit funds, leaving them frustrated. CZ, Binance CEO, tweeted an explanation of the problem: “We experienced a server issue on our replica database cluster, causing some data to be out of sync. Need to fully resync from master. Due the size of the data, it will take several hours. No data is lost. We appreciate your understanding and support,” confirming that no hack had happened.

This explanation was followed by an update, stating that they will need even more time: “Unfortunately, data sync is far slower than our in-memory matching engine speed. We will update a new estimated time shortly. Painful day! Also need to hire more [developers].”

Their troubles don’t end there: several Twitter accounts surfaced, claiming to be giving away ETH if users send them 0.2 ETH first, as a means of compensation. CZ had to warn against them as well.

Prior to this temporary technical issue, Binance was the largest exchange in the world, but was now overtaken by OKEx by daily trading volume, which is over USD 3.5 billion in the last 24 hours, according to Coinmarketcap.com data.