Coinbase, one of the world’s largest bitcoin marketplaces, has recently declared that buying and selling has been temporarily disabled – much to the shock and surprise of many. The reason? Well it was “temporarily disabled following a price rout,” said a Unilad report.

The report further tells us that Coinbase exchange visitors were greeted with a message showing it offline at “around 9:30 am.” Although the site was back by 10 am, trading was suspended soon after 11 am.

Coinbase later issued a statement (and an apology) to address concerns over the trading halt.

According to them, they are working on fixing the problem.

The statement said:

“Due to today’s high traffic, buys and sells may be temporarily offline. We’re working on restoring full availability as soon as possible.”

Experts share insights as to why the crash happened in the first place.

Chief executive officer Ross Norman of Sharps Pixley, a company that offers gold in exchange of bitcoin, commented:

“The sharks are beginning to circle here, and the futures markets may give them a venue to strike. Bitcoin’s been heavily driven by retail investors, but there’ll be some aggressive funds looking for the right opportunity to hammer this thing lower.”

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, encouraged punters to “invest responsibly which shows just how delicate this whole thing is.”

The unexpected suspension comes following recent news that cryptocurrrencies are “at an all time low,” Unilad wrote, “with Bitcoin dropping below £12,000 (US$16,216).”

Meanwhile, an Independent feature tells us that the drop “is believed to be a result of panic selling amid speculation that the bitcoin bubble could be about to burst.”

As tech entrepreneur and investor Oliver Isaacs explained, it was the result of “herd mentality”. Isaacs shared:

“Just as people feared missing out on the way up, the idea you can actually lose money is also a new emotion investors are experiencing and people, especially retail investors, are selling manically on the way down.”

“Because bitcoin trading is unregulated,” Independent continued, “there are no rules to stop a mass sell-off. Only individual exchange websites can stop their users trading.”