A Coinbase Bug Made Some People Think They're Billionaires Recently

RJ Pierce, Tech Times 15 December 2021, 01:12 am

Coinbase users were treated to a rather crazy surprise recently. When they opened their crypto wallets, they were... billionaires.

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(Photo : Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
A visual representation of the digital Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin alongside US Dollars on December 07, 2017 in London, England. Cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Lightcoin have seen unprecedented growth in 2017, despite remaining extremely volatile. While digital currencies across the board have divided opinion between financial institutions, and now have a market cap of around 175 Billion USD.

However, this wasn't really true. According to Mashable, a certain "display issue" managed to mistakenly change the balances of so many accounts. Many of these accounts allegedly had billions of dollars in their wallets, forcing Coinbase to do some immediate damage control.

The official statement is as follows, as per the crypto trading platform's Twitter account:

We're aware some customers are seeing inflated values for non-tradable crypto assets on https://t.co/ohqDivCZYw and Coinbase Wallet. This is a display issue only and does not impact trading.
— Coinbase Support (@CoinbaseSupport) December 14, 2021

Nevertheless, it likely came too late for some users, who were flabbergasted by what they saw in their wallets. Most of the users tweeted that their "emotions were played with" when they thought they were actually billionaires. The denominations varied greatly, but some users saw as much as $22.8 billion in their accounts, such as this guy:

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK @coinbase $XRP pic.twitter.com/tS8RgPBzdY
— zach (@ZachNagel7) December 14, 2021

Some were even quick to make fun of the situation, after the wrong balance numbers were fixed. This meme is a perfect example:

#Coinbase i demand my $3B back! @coinbase 😂 pic.twitter.com/gquQ9VCxus
— Salika (@Salika22) December 14, 2021

It is completely understandable why some people would feel like their emotions were played with. After all, it's an entirely different thing to just wake up one morning and learn that you're now one of the richest people in the world.

$22 billion is no joke of a nest egg, considering that it would be enough to place anyone at 78th place in the current Forbes billionaires list at the time of this writing. With that net worth, you'd be overtaking Russian oil and gas tycoon Gennady Timchenko.

For now, there is no official statement from Coinbase as to what exactly caused the glitch, aside from their claim that it was a display issue.

Coinbase Made A Mistake, But Can Crypto Actually Make You A Billionaire?

The short answer, yes. But you don't specifically need Coinbase to make a massive fortune from crypto trading. You could as easily trade on other platforms and still be successful, perhaps not as successful as having a $22 billion fortune.

Among the richest cryptocurrency investors, including those who established their own trading firms, have already landed a spot on Forbes. This includes Alameda Research and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who currently has a net worth of $8.7 billion.

Another example is the Winklevoss Twins Cameron and Tyler, who both have $3 billion fortunes each for being early adopters of Bitcoin. The twins currently own an estimated 70,000 BTC, reportedly alongside other digital assets, reports Forbes.

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(Photo : Screenshot from YouTube/Forbes)

Massive Volatility = Get Rich Quick

What happened with Coinbase was a mistake. But technically, it's also not impossible for cryptocurrency prices to shoot up to crazy numbers seemingly out of nowhere.

A perfect example would be Shiba Inu (SHIB) coin, which reportedly rose an insane 60 MILLION percent over the past year, according to CNN. After being launched only last year, the so-called meme coin now has a total market value of $26 billion.

It's not even close to the total market value of Bitcoin (which stands at $600 billion as of June this year), but it proves the point that crypto investments can, technically, make you a billionaire overnight.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by RJ Pierce