Online trading platform eToro is back online after a technical problem led to a global outage amid a sell-off of cryptocurrencies.
The Israel-based service, which has surged in popularity during the pandemic, had been inaccessible to users since Tuesday.
The service was back online on Wednesday morning.
Tuval Chomut, eToro's chief solutions officer, said the trading platform outage was not caused by "a breach or an attack on our systems".
"The reason for the service disruption was a technical issue that affected our Microsoft database and we were forced to move the platform into maintenance mode," he said.
"We worked hand in hand with senior engineers at Microsoft to identify and resolve the issue, but this took longer than any of us would have wanted."
The company said it would be introducing temporary changes to respond to the demand.
"We will be raising the minimum first time deposit amount to $1,000 effective immediately and increasing the minimum copy value to $500. We will also be temporarily removing the option to request future market entry orders," Mr Chomut said.
"These are unprecedented times both in terms of the market conditions and eToro's growth. We have more and more new users coming to the platform each day, a huge increase in trading volumes and strong growth in our users' engagement with the feed and other aspects of our social investment community.
"This means that when things go wrong more people are affected and we take this responsibility very seriously. We want to assure you that providing a frictionless trading and investing experience is our highest priority."
eToro, which allows users to trade shares with their mobile phones, grew its user base by about a third in 2020.
The crash comes as Bitcoin traders lead a sell-off in the cryptocurrencies market.
The market dropped 14 per cent in the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.com.
The slump was led by Bitcoin, which accounts for 60 per cent of the cryptocurrency market by value.
The sell-off coincided with comments from US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. She said Bitcoin was "extremely inefficient" as a means of payment and highly speculative.
Know your Camel lingo
The bairaq is a competition for the best herd of 50 camels, named for the banner its winner takes home
Namoos - a word of congratulations reserved for falconry competitions, camel races and camel pageants. It best translates as 'the pride of victory' - and for competitors, it is priceless
Asayel camels - sleek, short-haired hound-like racers
Majahim - chocolate-brown camels that can grow to weigh two tonnes. They were only valued for milk until camel pageantry took off in the 1990s
Millions Street - the thoroughfare where camels are led and where white 4x4s throng throughout the festival
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Profile of Whizkey
Date founded: 04 November 2017
Founders: Abdulaziz AlBlooshi and Harsh Hirani
Based: Dubai, UAE
Number of employees: 10
Sector: AI, software
Cashflow: Dh2.5 Million
Funding stage: Series A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
BIG SPENDERS
Premier League clubs spent £230 million (Dh1.15 billion) on January transfers, the second-highest total for the mid-season window, the Sports Business Group at Deloitte said in a report.
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Should late investors consider cryptocurrencies?
Wealth managers recommend late investors to have a balanced portfolio that typically includes traditional assets such as cash, government and corporate bonds, equities, commodities and commercial property.
They do not usually recommend investing in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies due to the risk and volatility associated with them.
“It has produced eye-watering returns for some, whereas others have lost substantially as this has all depended purely on timing and when the buy-in was. If someone still has about 20 to 25 years until retirement, there isn’t any need to take such risks,” Rupert Connor of Abacus Financial Consultant says.
He adds that if a person is interested in owning a business or growing a property portfolio to increase their retirement income, this can be encouraged provided they keep in mind the overall risk profile of these assets.
