The ultra-modern and traditional markets coincided on Mar 5, as both Bitcoin and gold saw record-breaking highs occur on the same day.
In the early hours in Europe on Monday 4 March, Bitcoin jumped to above $65,537 which was the crypto asset’s highest level since late 2021 when its all-time record of $68,999.99 was reached.
Just a day later, Bitcoin continued to soar and it hit a historic high of $69,210 at 3:00 pm UTC.
According to data from TradingView, spot gold smashed through its peak at $2,130 at around 1:30 pm UTC on the same day, March 5.
The price of Bitcoin then took a tumble as it hit $60,793 in the early afternoon before slightly recovering to trade around $62,780.
As these highs were reached, all three major U.S. stock indexes fell 1 percent or more on the same day.
National investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, Tom Hainlin, told Reuters: “We can draw the line from weaker economic data to higher expectations that the Fed will cut interest rates to less support the dollar, which, in turn supports gold.”
As prices went up, the trading app crashed
Whilst investors were likely overjoyed with the price, some users were unable to buy or sell as cryptocurrency trading app Coinbase crashed at a pivotal moment.
At 3:44 pm ET, Coinbase posted on Twitter: “We are aware that some users may be experiencing errors when transacting. Our team is investigating this issue and will provide an update shortly. Your assets are safe.”
We are aware that some users may be experiencing errors when transacting. Our team is investigating this issue and will provide an update shortly. Your assets are safe.
— Coinbase Support (@CoinbaseSupport) March 5, 2024
This left several Coinbase users feeling frustrated and they took to X to voice their anger. One customer wrote: “We can’t buy and we can’t sell and my accounts not being credited sales that went through.”
At 5:43 pm ET, the trading company said customer transactions had fully recovered.
Featured image: Photo by Aleksi Räisä on Unsplash