Bitcoin hits $64,000 before sharply retreating as Coinbase crashes

• Bitcoin price hit highs of $64,100 on Coinbase, surging double-digits.
• BTC however fell sharply as Coinbase users reported issues with account balances.
• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong noted the exchange had recorded a spike in traffic.

Bitcoin price crossed the $64,000 mark on Wednesday February 28, to hit its highest level since October 2021. The top cryptocurrency’s value rose more than 12% in the 24 hours to hit highs of $64,100 on Coinbase.

However, prices fell sharply to touch lows of $58k as $100 million in BTC liquidations hit the market in one hour. Over the past 24 hours, total liquidations across the crypto market reached over $630 million – with Coinglass data showing short sellers rekt for over $355 million and longs for $280 million.

The $6,000 dip happened as users reported problems with their Coinbase accounts – balances showed $0. Coinbase support did acknowledge the problem, noting that its team was investigating the matter.

We are aware that some users may see a zero balance across their Coinbase accounts & may experience errors in buying or selling. Our team is investigating this & will provide an update shortly. Your assets are safe.
You can track this incident at https://t.co/a3pl4WiDhZ

— Coinbase Support (@CoinbaseSupport) February 28, 2024

Coinbase founder and CEO Brian Armstrong acknowledged the surge in traffic the exchange was seeing.

We are dealing with a LARGE surge of traffic – apologies for any issues you encounter. The team is working to remediate.

— Brian Armstrong ????️ (@brian_armstrong) February 28, 2024

What next for Bitcoin?

BTC, which has jumped nearly 50% in the past 30 days, spiked to the multi-year high to come within 5% of its all-time high of $69,000. At today’s peak, Bitcoin had doubled from levels seen in October 2023 when it broke above the $30,000 level.

The momentum that carried bulls high this week has coincided with a massive influx of money into spot Bitcoin ETFs. The SEC’s approval of spot ETFs in January helped push BTC above $50k and the record volumes seen this week have added to the impetus.

Only this week, BlackRock’s IBIT recorded a staggering $1.3 billion in volume.  Today, the spot ETFs were up to $2.6 billion with just half the day of trading data in. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas shared this on X.

JEEZ: Only halfway through trading day and New Nine bitcoin ETFs have already broken their all time daily volume record w/ $2.6b. We got 4 btc ETFs in Top 20. $IBIT is #4 overall, it’s gonna trade more today than in its first two wks combined. This is officially a craze. pic.twitter.com/Wqez1rKrCg

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 28, 2024

The market anticipates Bitcoin price may pull back ahead of the halving. Currently, Bitcoin is hovering around the $60k level.