How to check if a crypto exchange is down: a step-by-step guide
When an exchange stops working for you, the first question is whether it is down for everyone or only for you. You can usually answer that in a couple of minutes: check the exchange's own status page, check an independent measurement, try a different network, and test the public API directly. Each source sees something different, so one green page does not prove everything is fine, and one failed request does not prove the exchange is down.
Look at the official status page first, then an independent source such as our exchange pages, then your own connection on a different network. If the public API responds but your app does not, the problem is probably narrower: your account, your network, your region or one service.
Step 1: read the official status page
Most large exchanges publish a status page or an announcements page. It is the only source that can tell you about things outsiders cannot see, such as a problem with withdrawals on one network or planned maintenance of the matching engine.
Read these pages carefully, because each one lists its own scope and it may be very specific. The Coinbase page we captured on 7 November 2026 listed separate components including the website, the mobile app, the API and customer support, with the incident messages above them. The Kraken page showed a summary banner about digital currency funding and payment methods, while everything else was operating normally. An issue may affect only one coin or one service.
Status pages have limits as well. They are usually updated by people, so a new outage may take a while to appear, and exchanges have an understandable reason to word things gently. A green status page during a real problem is common in the first minutes. Treat it as evidence, not proof.
Step 2: check an independent measurement
An outside source that tests the exchange continuously gives you a second opinion. This site checks the public APIs of 10 exchanges about every 15 seconds. Each exchange page shows the latest status and hourly availability, and the incident log records every run of 2 or more failed checks in a row.
What this can tell you: whether the public API has been answering correctly from our location, recently and historically. What it cannot tell you: whether logins, order placement or withdrawals work, because our checks use only public market data. Our pages also update every few minutes rather than instantly, so check the time shown. If our page shows the API is answering while the app is failing for you, the fault is probably in something we do not test, or somewhere between you and the exchange.
Step 3: rule out your own connection
This is where most apparent outages end. Try these in order, as they are quick:
- Open the exchange on a different device, such as the mobile app on cellular data if you were using a laptop on Wi-Fi.
- Try another network. Your internet provider's route to the exchange may be the failing part, and a mobile connection takes a different route.
- Check another website to confirm your connection works at all.
- Check your system clock. A clock that is far off breaks secure connections and signed API requests, and produces strange errors that look like an outage.
- Clear the app's cache or update it. An old app version may be calling a retired service.
If it works on another network, the exchange is not down: the path between you and it has a problem. These issues are often in the network between you and the exchange or its content delivery network, and only time or a different route will fix them.
Step 4: test the public API yourself
You can test the exchange without an account or software beyond a browser or a terminal. Public time and ticker endpoints need no key. Requesting them shows if the exchange's servers answer from where you are. Exchanges publish these endpoints in their API documentation. For example:
curl -i https://api.bybit.com/v5/market/time
Then read the result:
- 200 with sensible data: the public API is working from your location. If the app still fails, the problem is elsewhere.
- 429: too many requests from your IP. It is not an outage. See our guide to rate limits.
- 403 or 451: often a block by region or by a web firewall. See our guide to 403 and 451.
- 500, 502, 503 or 504: a server-side problem at the exchange or its proxy. This is the strongest sign of a real issue, particularly if it repeats.
- Timeout or connection refused: could be the exchange, could be your route. Compare with another network.
Be careful with a 200 response. An exchange can return 200 with an error inside the body, which is why our own checks read the content and not only the status code.
Step 5: check what other people are reporting
User-report sites and social media can show a problem quickly, because thousands of people notice at once. They are noisy, though. A spike of reports can reflect a brief app glitch, an internet provider's outage in one country, or one user's post being shared. Look for reports from several regions and several services, and try to find specific symptoms rather than just "it is down". Be especially careful with messages offering help: scammers target people during outages by posing as support staff. No genuine support agent needs your password, your 2FA code or your recovery phrase.
What is actually down? A short guide to the symptoms
An exchange is not one system. It is a website, mobile apps, a matching engine, market data feeds, wallets, logins and customer support, and any of them can fail separately.
- Charts freeze but orders work: the market data feed or your connection to it has failed. Prices on screen may be stale, so check fills.
- You can see prices but cannot log in: the login or account service is failing, possibly only for your region.
- Orders are rejected or stuck: the trading system or risk engine has a problem, or you have reached an order rate limit.
- Deposits or withdrawals are delayed: often limited to one network or token. Check the deposit and withdrawal status for your specific asset.
- Everything fails, for everyone: rare, and the case that deserves the word "outage".
Maintenance is different from an outage
Exchanges schedule maintenance and announce it in advance. Trading may pause or switch to a limited mode. This is not an outage, but its effect on you can be the same. Check announcements before holding a large position through an announced upgrade. Our checks may record such a period as failures, since a public API that is down for maintenance is still down. That can make the incident log show a recurring pattern at the same time of day or week.
If it really is down and you have an open position
Do not make repeated attempts at the same order in a panic, and do not assume an order failed because the screen shows an error. It may have gone through. Our guide on what to do when an exchange goes down with an open position covers the practical steps, including how to hedge elsewhere and how to record what happened.
Common questions about exchange outages
Why does the exchange's status page say everything is fine?
The most common reasons are that the issue has only just begun, that it affects a narrow group such as one region or a single service, or that it lies outside the exchange's control, for example with an internet provider. Check the page again after a few minutes and compare it with another source.
Why does a site say the exchange is up when I cannot use it?
Because it tests something other than what you are using, and from another location. Our checks test public APIs from a single location. Your problem might lie with your account, the app, your route or your region. Both statements can be true at once.
Can an exchange be down in only one country?
Yes. A network problem can affect only one country or provider, and restrictions can make a service unavailable by region. That is why one location's measurement, including ours, describes that location. Our figures state where they are measured from.
How long do exchange outages usually last?
Most of the failures we record are short. Many clear within minutes, and only a small share last longer than a quarter of an hour. Our incident log lists the duration of each one, so you can see what is typical for the exchange you use.
Quick checklist
- Read the official status page and announcements.
- Check an independent source and note the time it was updated.
- Try another device and another network.
- Test a public API endpoint and read the status code.
- Identify which service is failing.
- Ignore anyone offering support by direct message.
Related reading: How to read API uptime and outage records · What to do when an exchange goes down · Why an exchange API returns 403 or 451
Sources
Coinbase · Status · Kraken · Status · OKX · Status · How we measure · About Tickmark
Other guides
What is a funding rate in crypto perpetual futures? A plain explanation
A funding rate is a regular payment between traders holding opposite sides of a perpetual futures contract. It exists because a perpetual contract never expires, so something else has to keep its price close to the underlying asset. When the rate is positive, longs pay shorts; when it is negative, shorts pay longs. The exchange sets the formula but, on the major exchanges, the money moves between traders.
How to compare funding rates across crypto exchanges: 8h vs 4h settlement
You cannot compare two funding rates by looking at the percentages alone. A rate only means something once you know how often it is charged, whether you are long or short, and whether the two readings describe the same contract at the same moment. The same +0.01% costs twice as much per day on a four-hour schedule as on an eight-hour one, and it earns a short exactly what it costs a long.
What does a negative funding rate mean? Who pays, and what it does not tell you
A negative funding rate means traders holding short positions pay traders holding long positions at the next settlement. It usually happens when a perpetual contract trades below its index price, which often reflects heavy shorting or hedging. It does not mean the price is about to fall or about to rise, and it is not free income for longs, because the price can move against them by far more than the payment.
How to convert a funding rate to APR, and why the number can mislead you
To annualise a funding rate, multiply the rate per settlement by the number of settlements in a day, then by 365. A rate of 0.01% every eight hours becomes 0.01% × 3 × 365 = 10.95% a year. This puts contracts on different schedules onto one scale, which makes them comparable. It does not tell you what you will earn or pay over a year, because it assumes today's rate never changes.
Funding rate arbitrage explained: how it works and what eats the profit
Funding rate arbitrage means holding two offsetting positions in the same asset so that price moves roughly cancel, and collecting funding payments on one side. The classic version buys spot and shorts the perpetual. A second version shorts the perpetual on the exchange with the higher rate and goes long on the exchange with the lower rate. It is often described as risk free. It is not. The risks are simply different from the risk of an ordinary directional trade.
Mark price vs last price vs index price: which one liquidates you?
Perpetual futures show three prices that are easy to mix up. The last price is where the most recent trade happened. The index price is an average of spot prices across several exchanges. The mark price is an exchange's estimate of what the contract is fairly worth, and on the major exchanges it is what decides your unrealised profit and whether you are liquidated. Knowing which price does what explains why a position can be liquidated even though the chart never touched your liquidation level.
How much does a market order really cost? Fees, spread and slippage
The fee on an exchange's fee page is only part of what a market order costs. The rest comes from the price you actually receive, which depends on the direction of your trade, your order size and the depth of the order book at that moment. To compare exchanges fairly, measure the average fill price against one reference price, then add your trading fee on top, and be careful not to count the spread twice.
How to estimate slippage from order book depth before you trade
Slippage is the difference between the price you expected and the average price you actually got. You can estimate most of it before placing an order, because the order book shows how much is available at each price. Add up the levels on the side you will consume until they cover your size, calculate the average price, and compare it with the mid price. The estimate is only as good as the snapshot it came from, and books thin out at the moments you are most likely to need them.
Maker and taker fees explained: how to compare crypto exchange trading fees
A maker adds an order to the book that waits to be filled. A taker fills against an order already there. Most exchanges charge takers more than makers, because makers supply the liquidity others trade against. Comparing exchanges by the headline fee alone is misleading: you need to know which side you usually trade on, what tier your volume actually puts you in, and how the fee compares with slippage and funding on the same trade.
Is an exchange really down? How to read API uptime and outage records
Uptime describes the share of successful requests to particular services, over a particular period, from a particular network route. It does not establish whether you can place an order, withdraw funds or trust an exchange with your assets. A figure like 99.9% is useful only if you know what was tested, from where and for how long, so this guide explains how to read those details on our pages and on anyone else's.
What to do when a crypto exchange goes down while you have an open position
If an exchange stops responding while you hold a position, your first job is to find out what is actually broken, the second is to stop making it worse, and the third is to reduce your risk by whatever route still works. Do not keep resending the same order, because earlier attempts may have gone through. Check the mobile app and the API as alternative routes, consider hedging elsewhere if your exposure is large, and record what happened in case you need to raise it later.
Why exchange APIs reject timestamps: clock offset and stale quotes explained
A fast response can contain an old quote. Round-trip latency, clock offset and quote age describe different parts of a request, and mixing them up can make a clock mismatch look like a delayed market feed. This guide explains each one with a worked example, shows how we estimate them, and covers what to do when an exchange API rejects your request because of the time.
Binance error -1021 timestamp: causes and how to fix it
Binance API error -1021 INVALID_TIMESTAMP means the timestamp on your signed request falls outside the window Binance will accept. The message usually reads "Timestamp for this request is outside of the recvWindow" or "was 1000ms ahead of the server's time". In most cases your own clock is the cause, so the fix is to synchronise it, measure the offset against Binance's server time, and handle any remaining network delay properly. A larger recvWindow can hide the problem, but it should not be your first move.
Crypto exchange API rate limits: what error 429 means and how to stay under it
HTTP 429 means you have sent too many requests in a given time, and the server is asking you to slow down. It is not an outage. Each exchange counts requests differently: Binance uses a weight for each endpoint and bans IP addresses that keep going after a 429, Bybit blocks an IP that passes 600 requests in five seconds, and OKX sets limits per endpoint and returns error code 50011. Staying under the limit means reading the response headers, backing off properly and using WebSockets where you can.
Why an exchange API returns 403 or 451: blocks and regions
A 403 means the server understood your request and refuses to carry it out. A 451 means access is refused for legal reasons. On crypto exchange APIs, a 403 can be a web firewall, a request limit, an unauthorised key or a regional block, so the code alone does not tell you which. The response body, the exchange's documentation and a comparison from another network usually do. A real restriction applies to you for a reason, so the right response is to find out whether the service is available where you are.
Before you open a crypto exchange account: a checklist by country
Before you open an account on a crypto exchange, check four things: whether the exchange is allowed to serve people where you live, whether your country's regulator lists it, whether the site in front of you is the real one, and how the exchange has been running lately. The sign-up form takes ten minutes. Recovering from the wrong choice can take months, and sometimes it is not possible at all. This guide works through each check, using Binance and OKX as worked examples because they are the two exchanges readers ask us about most.
How to open and verify a Binance account: a step-by-step guide
Opening a Binance account takes four steps: register with an email address, a phone number or a Google, Apple or Telegram account; complete identity verification; secure the account; and make a first deposit. Registration takes a few minutes. Binance says verification is usually reviewed within 48 hours. This guide follows each step as Binance's own help pages describe it on 8 November 2026, with screenshots of those pages, and points out the details that most often cause trouble later.
How to open and verify an OKX account: a step-by-step guide
Opening an OKX account takes four steps: register with your country of residence, an email address and a phone number; complete identity verification; secure the account; and make a first deposit. OKX says it reviews verification applications within 24 hours. Which OKX company you end up with depends on where you live, and that decides the address you log in at, the fees you pay and the products you see. This guide follows OKX's own help pages as they stood on 8 November 2026, with screenshots, and flags the choices that are hard to undo. OKX shows some help pages differently by region; we read the versions served at okx.com/en-us, and the rules shown in your own account after you log in are the ones that apply to you.