The price of Bitcoin continues to surge, gaining upwards of 12.7% in the last 24 hours alone. The cryptocurrency has pinned all the attention on itself as it currently sits on a market cap of more than $227 billion. Now, one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, Bitfinex, has gone offline for a seven-hour long maintenance period. Could this be indicative of more action?
According to an official press release, popular cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, as well as associated Ethfinex, will be offline for up to seven hours today, June 26, starting at 8 AM UTC. The intention of the scheduled maintenance is to commence a platform upgrade which is “designed to enhance the stability and scalability of the iFinex matching engine.”
On June 26, Bitfinex will be offline for up to seven hours as we conduct a comprehensive platform upgrade for continued exchange innovation and scalability.
Read the full details here: http://t.co/TKQkDylt53 pic.twitter.com/jQFVwyWvbh
— Bitfinex (@bitfinex) June 20, 2019
Throughout the entire period, traders on those platforms won’t be able to trade, view, or access their wallets.
Interestingly enough, the statement also notes that the upgrade will lay the foundation for the launch of derivatives trading on Bitfinex. So perhaps Bitfinex really is following in the footsteps of BitMEX.
According to the statement, no orders will be executed during the downtime, and users won’t be liquidated during the downtime. However, if the price moves violently during this time, traders will be at risk of liquidation as soon as the platform reopens.
As CryptoPotato reported in the past, scheduled maintenance for major cryptocurrency exchanges is an excellent opportunity for Bitcoin price manipulation by whales. That’s why traders should stay in control and make sure that they are taking precautions to prevent their positions from being liquidated as soon as Bitfinex comes back up.
This is especially true now that Bitcoin’s price is moving so quickly. The cryptocurrency’s price just hit $13,000, marking a fresh 2019 high.
Ever since Bitcoin breached the $8,000 resistance, there hasn’t been much of a correction in its price. What’s more, if we rewind back to the bull run back of 2017, the pattern is almost identical.
That’s why traders should be even more careful when there are such long maintenance periods designated for major updates on popular cryptocurrency exchanges.