Bithumb server crashes as Bitcoin rides roller-coaster

By Chyung Eun-ju

The server at Bithumb, a leading online currency exchange based in Korea, was out of action for an hour over the past two days.

The server went down at 4 p.m. Sunday as more people tried to access the site while Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) prices fluctuated wildly, according to the Internet and Security Agency.

While the new digital token called BCH soared to a record $2,477 and then fell 50 percent to $1,224, the Bitcoin price plunged to $5,507 and shot back up to $6,400, according to CoinMarketCap on Sunday (local time).

"If the server had not been down, I could have sold my Bitcoins for a higher price," complained a Bithumb user surnamed Kim..

An investor said, "People are thinking of whether to die overnight, but the employees [of Bithumb] don't even come out of their offices.

"I lost 250 million won ($222,900) because the server was down."

Two police stood by as a precaution while frustrated investors stood outside Bithumb headquarters in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, at 10.30 a.m. on Monday.

"We are discussing measures to compensate the investors," a Bithumb official said. "We will meet our legal and social responsibilities concerning this issue."

Bitcoin's volatility reflects the uncertainty about the digital currency's future.

BCH split from Bitcoin on Aug. 1 after developers upgraded the block size from one megabyte to eight megabytes.

Block size limits the transaction speed, so developers tried to improve the speed with a SegWit2x upgrade, which raises the block size to two megabytes.

The slow speed and high cost of Bitcoin make traditional means of sending payments overseas more attractive.

"High volatility isn't going away for Bitcoin, raising questions about whether the digital currency can be a sustainable investment asset," CNBC reported Sunday.

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