Robinhood crypto trading crashed during a Dogecoin spike
Robinhood ran into issues processing cryptocurrency trades this morning, during a spike in the price of Dogecoin that sent users flocking to the app. The website DownDetector shows the outage starting around 9:30AM ET and reducing in severity about an hour later. Robinhood confirmed that it experienced a “partial outage” in crypto trading and said the issues had been resolved as of 11:15AM ET.
The outage was particularly noticeable since it came during a spike (and subsequent dip) in Dogecoin prices. Coins were priced at around $0.40 USD at the beginning of the day. Around 8AM ET, they spiked past $0.50 USD and reached as high as $0.60 USD near 10AM ET.
Update: Crypto trading is now fully restored. We know some customers may have experienced intermittent issues earlier. We’ll continue to monitor the situation closely and we’re sorry if you were impacted. Please contact us if you have outstanding issues. https://t.co/adhugIHVGR
— Robinhood Help (@AskRobinhood) May 4, 2021
Users were quick to voice their frustrations with the app on Twitter, seeing it as a repeat of the situation that happened in January when Robinhood limited trading on buzzy, soaring stocks, including GameStop and AMC. In the app this morning, a message told users, “We are experiencing intermittent issues with crypto trading. We are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible.” Meanwhile, the price ticker on Dogecoin continued its rapid flip up and down.
Robinhood has made it incredibly easy for anyone to become an amateur trader of stocks or cryptocurrencies. But that’s also meant that problems with Robinhood can affect markets, since it may be the only route that a mass of traders circling a buzzy asset have to place a buy or sell order.
This is the second Dogecoin-related crypto trading outage on Robinhood in a matter of weeks. On April 16th, Robinhood wrote that enthusiasm for Dogecoin led to “sporadic crypto order failures.” At the time, the company said, “These interruptions aren’t acceptable to us.”
Robinhood is expected to go public later this year.
Robinhood ran into issues processing cryptocurrency trades this morning, during a spike in the price of Dogecoin that sent users flocking to the app. The website DownDetector shows the outage starting around 9:30AM ET and reducing in severity about an hour later. Robinhood confirmed that it experienced a “partial outage”…
