PayPal, an online payment system that lets users pay at webshops and other online services, was facing a massive outage on Thursday. According to Downdetector – a platform that tracks online outages -more than 118 users reported the issue by 7 PM.
The Downdetector earlier said there were nearly 9,000 user reports of problems with PayPal transactions as of 1226 GMT.
PayPal is an online payment system that lets users pay at webshops and other online services. A PayPal account can also be usedto receive funds or transfer money to other PayPal users. Money can be deposited to a PayPal account through a checking account or credit card.
Issuing a statement, PayPal said on Thursday that it was “experiencing a system issue” that appears to be interfering with merchants’ ability to process payments.
Notably, the PayPal outage comes on a day bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, has surged to levels to over $98,000 and pulled other crypto stocks along with it. PayPal allows its clients to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency.
The exchanges Coinbase and Kraken reported issues on their websites, with Coinbase experiencing outages related to PayPal transactions and Kraken facing delays in deposits.
Reacting to the outage, a person tweeted, "I already thought my PayPal is hacked or something but turns out it's down for everyone."
I already thought my PayPal is hacked or something but turns out it's down for everyone. pic.twitter.com/1cKkA4P2ps
— GUSSTRA BEATS (@GusstraBeats) November 21, 2024
"Oh my god PayPal is down… I was convinced my account got hacked or something because i couldn’t log in for the last 40 minutes. Boutta jump in front of a train," another said in a post on X.
Oh my god PayPal is down… I was convinced my account got hacked or something because i couldn’t log in for the last 40 minutes. Boutta jump in front of a train
— justin (@tenmbread) November 21, 2024
"Has PayPal been hacked? No access possible for lots of us," another user wrote.