It is evident that a lot of cryptocurrency exchanges had some issues throughout 2017. Scaling such centralized platforms will always remain a major challenge. That’s especially the case when these companies have to deal with a major influx of new users on a daily basis. It seems these problems will remain present during the first few days and weeks of 2018. Coinbase is still experiencing major issues with most cryptocurrencies, US wires, and ID verification. It is evident something will need to change sooner or later.

More Coinbase Woes to Kick off 2018

Being one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchanges is both a blessing and a curse most of the time. After all, it means the company is doing a good job and making a healthy amount of profit. It also shows that consumers all over the world are willing to put their faith in that particular company. For all intents and purposes, trust is crucial in the world of cryptocurrency, especially when it comes to the exchange platforms available to us today.

However, there are always two sides to a medallion. For all of the interest users show in the exchange of their choosing, it puts a major strain on that company’s infrastructure and resources. Customer support staff will have to deal with more tickets, whereas the platform’s trading engine will be stressed a lot more. Furthermore, the site’s front-end and back-end will have to keep up with the growing number of users, which is a lot easier said than done these days.

Coinbase has seen its fair share of issues in 2017 on these fronts. More specifically, there have been numerous incidents regarding cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals. In December, the company also announced delays for wire transfers, which affected both deposits and withdrawals of fiat currency. Plus, the verification of new user identities has hit a snag as well, due to the overwhelming amount of information waiting to be processed.

So far, it seems 2018 will hold more of the same for Coinbase. Its Status page shows a fair few areas affected by degraded performance. They include transactions involving Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, whereas Bitcoin Cash remains unaffected for now. There are also delays for US and SEPA wires, as well as ID verification. Everything else seems to be working just fine for the time being, but it is possible that customers may experience additional problems at some point.

It is good to see the company post updates on these matters, though. Considering that its ID verification delays date back to December 9, it is evident that not much progress has been made in the past month. A lot of new people were introduced to cryptocurrency over the holidays, which is taking its toll on the Coinbase service. Wire processing delays have been apparent since December 15, yet it seems the situation has only grown worse over time. For now, outgoing wires can take 7 to 10 business days, whereas reversals are delayed by up to 5 business days.

All of this goes to show that Coinbase is still one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. However, it will need to get its act together and hire a lot more people to deal with all of these issues. It is unacceptable that a company of this size is dealing with lingering issues for weeks on end. Granted, it is working as hard as possible to fix things. For now, customers have been more than patient in this regard, but even their patience will run out at some point.