Late Thursday evening, the official government website for the US Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC went offline, causing a stir in financial circles. Reports of the outage quickly surfaced on various platforms, including X (formerly Twitter), as early as 10:24 pm New York time. Despite efforts to restore functionality, the site remained inaccessible for hours, leaving investors and analysts puzzled.
Coinciding with the website’s outage was a significant downturn in the price of bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency. Prior to the disruption, bitcoin had been trading around $71,200.
However, during the outage, its value plummeted below $66,800 on Bitstamp, marking a staggering 6.5% decline. This sudden drop resulted in the loss of over $80 billion in market capitalization within a mere two-hour window, sending shockwaves throughout the crypto community.
While many speculated about a potential correlation between the website outage and bitcoin’s dramatic decline, the exact causes behind the cryptocurrency’s plunge remain elusive. Despite the uncertainty, the incident underscored the influence of the SEC, the world’s most powerful securities regulator, with jurisdiction over trillions of dollars in publicly traded securities.
The website serves as a crucial repository of official statements, filings, and regulatory information, encompassing corporate disclosures, enforcement actions, educational resources, and ongoing legal proceedings.
Moreover, the commission has extended its regulatory purview to include numerous assets within the crypto industry, often designating certain tokens as unregistered securities, thereby exerting considerable influence over the market.
Interestingly, while the website was experiencing downtime, its X account, a prominent social media presence, remained operational. However, the commission refrained from acknowledging the outage for at least two hours, fueling speculation and concern among stakeholders.
Although instances of US government website outages are relatively uncommon, historical precedents exist. Notable platforms such as Justice.gov, WhiteHouse.gov, HealthCare.gov, USA.gov, and NASA.gov have all encountered prolonged periods of inaccessibility in the past, highlighting the vulnerability of digital infrastructure to technical disruptions.
As the clock struck 1 am New York time, the website remained offline, with no official statements from key figures such as SEC Chair Gary Gensler or Commissioner Hester Peirce. Notably, three SEC Commissioners—Mark Uyeda, Jaime Lizárraga, and Caroline Crenshaw—do not maintain X accounts, further complicating communication efforts amidst the outage.