CoinMarketCap.com is currently experiencing internal data issues, according to an official statement. The cryptocurrency overview site has been showing sudden price spikes that have excited many investors.
The site was displaying incorrect information that suggested more than $60 billion in fresh capital had flowed into the market. This was inaccurate, and CoinMarketCap is working to resolve the error.
We are currently aware of an issue with the data we are pulling in. We are investigating this matter and we will follow up with more information shortly.
— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) August 3, 2018
Further information was promised shortly afterward. Some users on Twitter speculated the site had been hacked, but those claims remained unconfirmed rumors at the time.
UPDATE: The problem has since been resolved, and prices and other market data are being displayed correctly again. The issue stemmed from a calculation error involving Tether data, which in turn affected the rest of the market figures. CoinMarketCap plans to publish a detailed report explaining how similar problems will be prevented in the future.
We apologize for the glitch earlier. There was a price calculation error on Tether which caused any listing with a Tether market to become artificially inflated. We will release a post mortem in the near future giving more details and our plans for preventing this in the future.
— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) August 3, 2018
The company has committed to transparency and promised a post-mortem report detailing the root cause and corrective measures. Meanwhile, users relying on market aggregators are advised to verify unusual data points and wait for official statements before making investment decisions.