Cryptocurrency exchange Binance temporarily suspended spot markets on Friday after a bug related to the trailing stop loss feature emerged. The world’s largest crypto exchange took this step at 11:38 UTC, with trading resuming approximately two hours later.
The unexpected outage was attributed to a bug affecting one of the trading engines. Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao described the event as “unlucky” and followed the company’s standard operating procedure by suspending trading. He later announced that “engine one” was back online and waiting for other engines to catch up.
The trailing stop loss feature allows traders to gradually reduce their positions as the asset price hits specific triggers. Crypto exchanges are known to experience downtime during periods of high trading volatility. This latest incident led to a $700 dip in the price of Bitcoin (BTC), but by the time Binance resumed trading at 14:00 UTC, the price had recovered to around $28,000.
CEO Reassures Users About Funds’ Safety
Changpeng Zhao took to Twitter to explain the situation, stating that the matching engine encountered a bug related to a trailing stop order. He also reassured clients that their deposits were safe, using the hashtag #SAFU, which refers to the exchange’s Safe Asset Fund for Users. This reserve fund was initially seeded with $1 billion in assets.
This incident comes at the end of a polarized week for cryptocurrencies, which have seen increased interest due to the collapse of three U.S. banks and Credit Suisse, sparking concerns about the stability of the traditional financial system. Advocates of digital currencies have long argued that they offer protection from a system susceptible to hyperinflation as a result of years of loose monetary policy.
Bitcoin’s price initially reacted negatively to the news of Binance’s suspension, dropping nearly 2%. However, by the end of the day, it had recovered, showing a 0.6% increase against a backdrop of continued selling in European and U.S. banking stocks.
