Can you have too much of a good thing? Unfortunately for Luxembourg-regulated Bitstamp, users found out the answer to that question after the website went down for over two hours Tuesday. The disruption coincided with a ‘free’ trading announcement for Bitcoin Cash, which was set to last until the end of the month.
Earlier today, Bitstamp unveiled a new offering for Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which supported free trading support for the instrument until December 31, 2017. However, shortly after the announcement, the exchange experienced a trading disruption, with the website down for over two hours for certain users.
TUNE IN FREE TRADING: $BCH trading is now LIVE with free trading until the end of December 2017 and with further generous discounts available until March 2018. Read more at https://t.co/jW1GEMUqqu #bitstamp pic.twitter.com/xEm3y8n4Zg
— Bitstamp (@Bitstamp) December 5, 2017
The website disruption occurred approximately between 11:45 GMT and 13:45 GMT, when users experienced a host of technical issues ranging from pages not loading to overall website crashes. The disruption was quickly made available to customer support, which has received numerous complaints surrounding the issue. At the time of writing, the website is back online and fully functioning.
Such disruptions are not exactly uncommon to the cryptocurrency industry, though certainly no less welcome for users. Bitstamp had been offering trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum , Ripple and Litecoin – the support of Bitcoin Cash trading was announced last month.
Bitstamp currently constitutes the largest crypto exchange in the EU. The disruption of its website has quickly earned the scorn of many users, who were particularly riled after Bitstamp listed Bitcoin Cash as Bcash. The misstep drew widespread complaints to Bitstamp’s compliance unit, adding to the exchange’s woes Tuesday. Bitstamp had already been dealing with complaints alleging long KYC processes and transactions getting stuck in the pipeline, with today's tensions seemingly boiling over on social media.
Bitstamp had rolled out a discounted pricing structure for all Bitcoin Cash trading over the next few months. According to the website, trading of Bitcoin Cash will be free until December 31, 2017, with a 75 percent discount until January 31, 2018, 50 percent discount until February 28, and 25 percent discount until March 31.
