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.

This is general information, not trading advice. Your exchange's terms decide how outages and losses are treated, and hedging adds costs and risks of its own.

First, find out what is broken

"The exchange is down" can mean several different things, and your options depend on which it is. Spend the first minute working that out.

• Your connection: try mobile data, or another device. Many apparent outages end here.
• The app or website only: the trading engine may be fine. The API or the other client may still work.
• The market data feed: prices on your screen may be frozen, while orders still execute. Do not trust what you see until it updates.
• The trading system: orders are rejected or stuck. This is the serious case.
• Everything: rare, but it happens. Then you are limited to acting elsewhere.

Our guide on how to check if an exchange is down walks through this in detail, and each exchange page shows our most recent reading of its public API, with the time it was taken.

Do not spam orders

The natural reaction is to keep pressing the close button. That can leave you worse off.

When a system is struggling, an error on your screen does not always mean your order failed. Binance's API documentation is explicit about one case: a 503 with the message "Unknown error, please check your request or try again later" means the request was sent but no response came back in time, and it warns you not to treat this as a failure, because the execution status is unknown and it could have succeeded. If you then send the order again, you may close twice as much as you intended and find yourself with an opposite position.

So before you resend: refresh your open positions and open orders, by any route available. If you cannot see them, assume the earlier attempt may have worked. Use a reduce-only flag when closing if your exchange offers one, because a reduce-only order can only make the position smaller and so cannot flip you into a new position. In the Binance case above, its documentation notes that close-position, reduce-only and cancel orders are exempt from one kind of system-level throttling, which is one more reason to use them for closing.

Try every route into the same exchange

An exchange often has several ways in, and they do not always fail together. Try each of them, in the order that is fastest for you.

• The mobile app if you were on the website, or vice versa.
• A different domain: some exchanges run regional API domains or alternative hostnames. Use only addresses from the exchange's own documentation, because fake domains target people in exactly this situation.
• The API, if you have keys set up already. This is not the moment to create them for the first time.
• A connected platform, if your account is linked to a trading terminal or bot.

Stop as soon as one works. Then close or reduce only what you have decided to, and confirm the result on a second screen if you can.

Hedge elsewhere if your exposure is too large

If you cannot reach the exchange and your position is large relative to your account, you can reduce your net exposure by taking the opposite position on another exchange. A long you cannot close on exchange A can be offset by a short of similar size on exchange B. Your net exposure to price falls, whichever way the market moves.

This is only possible if you prepared: you need an account that is already verified and funded on a second exchange. Consider the following before you do it.

• Your original position could still be liquidated. A hedge protects your overall wealth, but the margin on the first exchange is still at risk when the price moves against that leg, and the gains on the hedge are elsewhere.
• It adds cost. You pay fees and slippage to open it and again to close it, and possibly funding too. See the funding arbitrage guide for how such two-leg positions behave.
• You now have two positions to unwind. Once the exchange recovers, there is often a violent price move. Plan the order of closing before it comes back.
• The second exchange may be struggling too. Outages cluster in busy markets. It may also be slower than usual.

For small positions, the honest answer is often that a hedge costs more than the risk it removes. Work out how much you would lose in a plausible move before you add to your complexity.

What happens to your stop-loss and take-profit orders

Orders resting on the exchange may still execute during a partial outage, since they live on the exchange's side rather than on your screen. This is a strong reason to set them in advance. But do not count on them completely: a stop triggered during disorder can fill far from its trigger, and a trigger itself relies on systems that may be under strain. Assume that a stop is good protection in most conditions and is not a guarantee in all of them.

When the exchange returns, check all your open orders. An order you had given up on could still be live and could trigger as the market moves. Many exchanges cancel certain orders during maintenance; others do not. Check which applies to yours.

Funding, liquidation and the return of trading

Being unable to reach the exchange does not mean its clock stops. Funding settlements may still occur, and mark prices may still update. Exchanges have different rules on what happens during a complete failure, and some pause liquidations or settlements during major incidents. Find out your exchange's position only from its announcements.

The minutes after a recovery are often the most dangerous. Prices may have moved while the book was empty, so the first prints can be wild, and a queue of orders hits the market at once. If your position is safe, there is often no need to trade in the first seconds, when the spread is wide and the book is thin. Our guide on order book depth explains why.

Keep a record

If the outage has cost you money, your evidence will matter, and it is easiest to gather at the time.

• Take screenshots showing the time, the error, and your position, if you can see it.
• Note the exact time in UTC of each attempt and each error.
• Save any order IDs and any messages from support.
• Check the exchange's announcements for an incident notice, and save a copy.
• Export your order history and funding history when the service returns.

Independent records can support your account of events, but only for what they measure. Our incident log records failures of public APIs from one location at given times. That can show that something was wrong at that moment, but not that your specific order was affected. Contact support only through official channels, and never share your password, 2FA codes or recovery phrases with anyone who contacts you first.

Prepare before the next one

An outage is much easier to handle if you decided what to do beforehand.

• Use leverage you could survive an hour without touching. This is the single most effective preparation. Work out how far the price could move in one hour, and whether your position would survive that move.
• Keep stops and take-profits resting on the exchange, not only in your head or in an external tool.
• Hold a funded, verified account on a second exchange, with API access set up if you use it.
• Know your routes: install the app, bookmark the official domain, and keep your 2FA device with you.
• Check reliability before you choose where to hold a big position. Compare exchanges on our ranking and on their incident records, especially during busy periods.

Common questions

Will the exchange compensate me for losses during an outage?

That depends entirely on the exchange and its terms, and you should not assume it. Some exchanges have compensated users after major incidents, and many terms limit their liability for outages. Keep your records, contact official support, and read the relevant announcement.

Can I withdraw my funds while the exchange is down?

Usually not if the affected systems handle withdrawals, and exchanges may also pause withdrawals as a precaution. Check the exchange's wallet status page for your asset. Be suspicious of anyone offering a way around it, because such offers are often scams.

Should I switch exchanges after an outage?

One outage is rarely enough to decide. Look at the pattern over months: how frequent, how long, and at what kinds of moments. Our monthly reports are intended to make that comparison simple.

During an outage, in order

1. Identify what is broken and rule out your own connection.
2. Check your real position and open orders before resending anything.
3. Try other official routes into the exchange.
4. Close with reduce-only where possible.
5. Hedge elsewhere only if the risk justifies the cost.
6. Record times, errors and screenshots.
7. When service returns, review all open orders first.

Related reading: How to check if an exchange is down · How to read uptime and outage records · Mark price vs last price

Sources

Binance · API general information · OKX · Status · How we measure · About Tickmark