WhatsApp, the popular messaging app, experienced downtime on Tuesday, 25th October 2022 causing users trouble in sending and receiving messages.
This left netizens wondering if that is the end of the messaging app owned by Meta.
In this post, you will read all about the outage and why WhatsApp should not be your go-to platform for trading crypto.
Let’s get right to it.
25th October 2022 WhatsApp Outage: What Really Happened?
As mentioned earlier, WhatsApp had a service downtime on the 25th of October 2022.
Over 2 billion users of WhatsApp were unable to send and receive messages on both the mobile and web versions of the app.
A service outage reporting site, Downdetector tweeted about it around 8:16 am WAT time.
In the next few minutes following the tweet, a spike in the outage report on the site was observed.
More than 30,000 reports were recorded coming in from various areas like India, the USA, South Africa, Nigeria, etc.
In response to the situation, the team at WhatsApp responded that they are working to ensure that the service is restored.
And after about 2 hours, service was restored with the team citing ‘technical error on its part’ as the cause of the outage.
There was a similar incident with WhatsApp and other Meta-owned platforms in October 2021.
Is this a mere coincidence or an ‘October Curse’ for WhatsApp?🤔
Moving on, I will explain why you should not trade crypto on WhatsApp.
Read on…
Why You Should Not Trade Cryptocurrency on WhatsApp
Crypto trading is a risky venture on its own.
You might respond: What isn’t? Even life itself is a risk!
But curbing these risks will go a long way to help us make more gains from crypto.
One of the risks cryptonites are always warned against is trading outside a (legit) platform.
Well, some people still go ahead to do that, and luckily for them, it goes without hitches.
For others, they learn their lessons on the first try.
But this is me here today reiterating that you should desist from that.
I will create 2 scenarios to drive home my point:
Scenario 1:
So you join a supposed vendor on WhatsApp.
You are to purchase $500 worth of BTC or any other coin from the vendor.
With the ‘too-good-to-be-true’ rates, you go ahead and make payment for the coins happy that you’ve hit jackpot.
And voom… WhatsApp goes offline!
Then the vendor’s number is unreachable via voice calls.
You keep wishing that WhatsApp will restore service and when it does, your worst fear is confirmed.
Your money and the so-called vendor have vanished without a trace.
The vendor has blocked you on WhatsApp and there’s no other way to reach out.
Whew…there goes your money!
Scenario 2:
So, as in Scenario 1, you meet this vendor and you connect on WhatsApp.
You send a payment for your coins ($500) to the vendor to get BTC at $17k.
It was at that moment that WhatsApp downtime ensues.
Within the outage period, the market moved and prices went up to $20k.
Since there’s no way to communicate the price change to you, you end up receiving a lesser amount of coins.
You will then be required to send more funds to get the desired amount of coins.
Yes, this might not get to you so much if it is a slight price change.
But when it is up to a 40% increase, it will definitely affect your portfolio.
So much for cutting corners!
Both scenarios can be avoided if you choose to trade with a legit platform or vendor.
Now, there’s no disputing the fact that there are legit crypto trading WhatsApp pages or signal groups.
But always ensure that transactions are carried out on trusted exchanges.
We also have cases where the trade starts up on an exchange.
The seller/buyer then invites you to conclude the trade outside the platform.
This usually happens when trading P2P.
Don’t try it!
Once you are off the exchange, you will have no ground to appeal should anything go wrong with the trade.
Read this post to note the things to look out for when trading P2P.
Let’s go wrap up this post in the next subheading.
Conclusion
In all your crypto dealings – P2P, OTC, Futures, Investing, etc., be sure to use a safe platform like Bybit, Binance, OKX, etc.
It will save you a lot of headaches.
For traders that depend on trade signals from groups some of which exist on WhatsApp, it is good you diversify things.
Consider joining similar groups on other platforms. This will keep you from missing out on trades.
Alternatively, try conducting the fundamental and technical analysis yourself.
With this, I round off today’s post. Hope you enjoyed reading through it.
Let me know in the comment box below your experience with the WhatsApp outage.
Don’t forget to share the post to help inform others of the dangers of trading crypto on WhatsApp.
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