Is Coinbase Down? How to Check and What to Do

You cannot log in. Trades are failing. Your portfolio page will not load. Coinbase outages tend to happen at the worst possible moment, during sharp market moves when everyone is trying to buy or sell at the same time.

This guide covers how to check if Coinbase is down, what causes outages, and what to do when you cannot access your cryptocurrency.

How to Check if Coinbase Is Down

Check the Official Coinbase Status Page

Coinbase maintains a public status page at status.coinbase.com. It shows the status of Coinbase.com, the Coinbase app, Coinbase Pro/Advanced Trade, the API, and other components. During active incidents, Coinbase posts updates with timestamps and affected services.

Use Is That Down

Is That Down monitors Coinbase's status page and sends alerts when incidents are posted. For a general guide, see how to check if a service is down.

Check Downdetector

Downdetector tracks user reports for Coinbase. A spike in reports over the last 30 minutes signals an active issue. Reports break down into app, website, and trading categories.

Try the Website vs the App

If the Coinbase app is not working, try coinbase.com in a browser (or vice versa). If one works but the other does not, the issue is platform-specific.

Check Social Media

Search "coinbase down" on Twitter/X. Coinbase outages generate rapid discussion, especially during volatile market conditions. The @CoinbaseSupport account sometimes posts about known issues.

Common Causes of Coinbase Outages

Market Volatility Traffic Spikes

The most common cause of Coinbase outages is extreme market activity. When Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies make sharp moves (up or down), millions of users rush to Coinbase simultaneously to trade. The traffic spike overwhelms the platform's capacity.

This pattern has repeated many times. Every major crypto crash and every major rally has been accompanied by reports of Coinbase being slow, unresponsive, or completely down. It is the most predictable and frustrating failure mode for Coinbase users.

Infrastructure Scaling

Cryptocurrency markets operate 24/7, and traffic can spike at any time. Unlike traditional stock exchanges with set trading hours, Coinbase must be prepared for surges at any hour. Scaling infrastructure to handle 10x normal traffic within minutes is technically challenging, and Coinbase has struggled with it during the most extreme market events.

Maintenance and Deployments

Routine maintenance and software deployments occasionally cause service disruptions. Coinbase typically schedules maintenance during low-traffic periods, but unexpected issues during deployment can extend maintenance windows.

Third-Party Blockchain Issues

Coinbase interacts with multiple blockchain networks. When a blockchain network is congested (high transaction volumes on Ethereum, for example), Coinbase's ability to process deposits, withdrawals, and trades on that network is affected.

Regulatory and Compliance Actions

In rare cases, Coinbase may temporarily restrict certain features in response to regulatory requirements or compliance reviews. These are not technical outages but can affect user access to specific services.

What to Do When Coinbase Is Down

Do Not Panic-Sell Through Alternative Means

If you want to sell during a market drop and Coinbase is unavailable, resist the urge to transfer your crypto to another exchange in a rush. Blockchain transfers take time, and by the time your funds arrive at the alternative exchange, the market may have moved further. Making hasty transfers during an outage increases the risk of mistakes.

Use an Alternative Exchange

If you have accounts on other exchanges, you can use them for urgent trades:

• Kraken: Well-established, generally available during high-volatility periods.
• Gemini: US-regulated exchange with a strong reliability track record.
• Binance.US: Another major option for US users.

Having a funded account on a second exchange before you need it is the best preparation for Coinbase outages.

Check Your Portfolio Elsewhere

If you cannot access Coinbase to check your holdings, use a portfolio tracking app (CoinGecko, CoinMarketCap, Delta) that reads from the blockchain rather than from Coinbase. Your crypto is on the blockchain regardless of whether Coinbase's website is loading.

Avoid Sending Crypto During Outages

Do not initiate cryptocurrency transfers during a Coinbase outage. The transaction might get stuck in a pending state, and you will not be able to check its status until the service recovers. Wait for full service restoration before moving funds.

How to Get Notified About Future Coinbase Outages

Subscribe to the Coinbase status page. status.coinbase.com offers email and webhook subscriptions for incident notifications.

Use automated monitoring. Is That Down monitors Coinbase and sends alerts the moment an incident is reported. See outage alerts setup for configuration details.

Notable Coinbase Outages

May 2021 Crypto Crash

During the major cryptocurrency market crash in May 2021, Coinbase experienced significant outages. Users were unable to log in, trade, or access their portfolios as Bitcoin dropped from around $58,000 to below $34,000. The outage lasted several hours during one of the most volatile trading periods in crypto history.

November 2022 FTX Collapse

When the FTX exchange collapsed in November 2022, the resulting market turmoil drove massive traffic to Coinbase and other exchanges. Coinbase experienced degraded performance and intermittent outages as users rushed to check their holdings and move funds.

References

• Coinbase Status - Official real-time status page for all Coinbase services.
• Downdetector - Coinbase - User-reported outage data.

Beyond vendor monitoring, consider uptime monitoring for your own services and DNS monitoring to catch infrastructure issues.