For many Americans, the pandemic was a fantastic opportunity to discover a new hobby, or a time to branch economically on account of the about of time they would have to do research as well as the amount of money they were saving due to the stagnant state of the world.
And, unsurprisingly, many wound up working their way into the field of cryptocurrency. This, in turn, spurred the creation of a great many new crypto-centric accounting firms and exchanges, and created a massive boom in that market.
But now, as inflation has Americans scrambling to put gas in their tanks and keep food on the table, a crypto crash is in full swing, and some of the biggest players in the market are struggling to keep up.
Crypto lending company Celsius Network announced late on Sunday night that it would freeze all withdrawals and transfers due to “extreme market conditions.” The move sparked an enormous selloff, with the price of bitcoin falling 12 percent to its lowest level since December 2020.
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, said Monday morning that it was freezing bitcoin withdrawals due to “due to a stuck transaction causing a backlog.”
Changpeng Zhao, the firm’s CEO, tweeted that the fix would only take 30 minutes but later said that the problem was “going to take a bit longer to fix” than his initial estimate.
Twitter saw #cryptocrash trending on Monday, as users began to suggest the Celsius was some sort of “Ponzi scheme”, lambasting the company for their sudden and troubling decision.
