Users of the Coinbase exchange often have to show a lot of patience. Not just because customer support can be slow, but also due to minor platform outages. Over the past few hours, multiple customers have complained about credit card transactions not being available. It appears this currently affects both Visa and MasterCard-branded cards. It is not the first time Coinbase suffers from such issues, nor will it be the last. It is evident this company will need to make some changes now that they secured $100m in new funding.
It is not that easy to buy Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies with a credit or debit card. There are very few exchanges who provide such a feature, for obvious reasons. Payment card fraud is still a very big issue all over the world. No company wants to take unnecessary risks in this regard by any means. Coinbase is one of the more reputable exchanges providing payment card support these days. That is, assuming the payment gateway is actually working as intended. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case.
Yet Another Payment Issue for Coinbase
Several complaints on Reddit confirm as much. Multiple users complain about how their payment card transactions aren’t going through. It appears this is yet another minor outage for the Coinbase platform. It is possible this is due to their third-party payment processor having an issue, though. After all, it doesn’t appear the company processes payment cards themselves. Then again, they are having a lot of issues on a regular basis. Although these problems always get addressed pretty quickly, it causes some friction among customers.
More specifically, the Coinbase website mentions how there is a partial system outage taking place right now. A major outage is affecting both credit and debit card payments. All other functions on the platform appear to be working just fine for the time being. Interestingly enough, it appears there is a separate card issue for EU and international payments. This seemingly confirms their third-party processor has some issues to address right now. It is unclear how long these issues will last. Some customers may get lucky and complete their transaction regardless.
All of this goes to show centralized exchanges are a point of failure. Using credit cards to purchase Bitcoin seems convenient, but it’s also a hassle for service providers. Coinbase recently secured $100m in additional funding from various investors. We can only hope they will use some of the money to improve their overall infrastructure. Issues like these should never last long, but having a failover in place would be a good start. After all, an exchange operates 24/7 and issues can’t be afforded by any means.
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