OKX API Failure Causes Account Balance Confusion, Thousands of Users Affected

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Hassan Shittu

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Hassan Shittu

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Hassan, a Cryptonews.com journalist with 6+ years of experience in Web3 journalism, brings deep knowledge across Crypto, Web3 Gaming, NFTs, and Play-to-Earn sectors. His work has appeared in...

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Last updated:

March 27, 2024 16:34 EDT

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The OKX API has recently been plagued by a technical glitch that has left users in Singapore, Japan, and the United States with incorrect account balances.

According to reports on the OKX Telegram, affected users have experienced a range of issues, from accounts displaying zero balances to others showing balances skyrocketing into the tens of millions.

The widespread nature of the OKX API glitch has caused major frustration among traders, who have reported losses due to their inability to access or close positions.

OKX Acknowledges Rest API Issues and Reassures Users

In response to the numerous user complaints, OKX has acknowledged the issues with their Rest API, which facilitates connections to external services through standard HTTP requests.

We are aware some users have reported intermittent issues with our Rest API.

Our Websocket is functioning correctly and our app and website are not affected.

We are looking at the issue and we apologize for any inconvenience caused.

— OKX (@okx) March 27, 2024

The Rest API experienced a crash during this time, leading to errors, incorrect data, and failures when attempting to execute trades.

OKX has reassured users that their engineering team is actively working to resolve the API glitch and has emphasized the safety of user assets throughout the incident.

The exchange has also stated that their WebSocket, app, and website remain unaffected by the glitch.

Despite these assurances, the OKX API glitch has had repercussions on the exchange’s native token, OKB, causing a 2.21% decline in its value to $64.59 as of writing.

Recent Developments and Glitches in the Crypto Space

Prior to the current OKX API glitch, the exchange had recently integrated Uniswap Labs’ application programming interface (API) into its decentralized exchange (DEX) to allow gas-free trading through a feature called “Snap.”

We're introducing Snap mode, an interoperable OKX DEX feature powered by UniswapX 🦄

💡 Pricing optimization
🛡️ MEV protection
🔁 Gas-free swapping
0️⃣ No charge for failed txs

Explore how we elevate your trading game with enhanced access to DeFi: https://t.co/PBo0FYxwub pic.twitter.com/gnLCdmau34

— OKX (@okx) February 29, 2024

This feature was intended to simplify decentralized token swapping and provide a direct connection with Uniswap, granting the OKX DEX access to the UniswapX protocol and its liquidity.

However, the OKX API glitch is not an isolated incident in the crypto space. In recent weeks, platforms such as Coinbase and Solana have also been affected by outages and glitches.

Solana experienced a nearly 5-hour outage in early February, wherein block production abruptly ceased. The issue was traced back to an infinite recompile loop triggered by a legacy loader program within the JIT cache, necessitating a network upgrade and restart by validator operators.

This is absolutely insane:

The Coinbase, $COIN, crash just erased $100 BILLION of market cap in #Bitcoin in 15 minutes.

Between 12:15 PM ET and 12:30 PM ET, Bitcoin fell from $64,000 to $59,000.

This was a near 9% swing in 15 minutes right as many Coinbase users began showing… pic.twitter.com/fUcRusrddX

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) February 28, 2024

Coinbase, meanwhile, encountered an outage that led to a $100 billion loss in Bitcoin market cap within just 15 minutes in late February. The disruption occurred during a period of substantial rally in Bitcoin prices, with CEO Brian Armstrong attributing the outage to unexpectedly high demand.