365Crypto
Bank of America Customers Face Outages, See $0 Balances
In a reminder of how vulnerable centralised systems are, thousands of Bank of America customers reported seeing $0 balances and issues accessing their accounts on October 2. Many noted that while their balances were missing, their debts still showed up.
Outage Timeline
The service problems began around 4:26 pm UTC and peaked an hour later, with nearly 18,000 people reporting issues through Downdetector, a platform that tracks network outages. About 98% of the complaints came from users of Bank of America’s mobile and online banking services.
Bank Response and User Reactions
Bank of America initially told CNN that the outages were mostly resolved but later confirmed to Cointelegraph at 1:01 am UTC on October 3 that the “technology issues have been fully resolved.” Despite this, many customers continued to report problems on Downdetector, expressing frustration.
Some users said they could not deposit or withdraw money at branches, while others noted that although ATMs wouldn’t show their balances, they were still able to withdraw cash.
Community Reaction and Humor
Some customers voiced anger over the technical glitch, especially since their debt remained visible.
Others, including cryptocurrency enthusiasts, saw humor in the situation, pointing to Bitcoin’s reliability and encouraging self-custody of funds. According to Bitbo’s Bitcoin Uptime tracker, Bitcoin hasn’t experienced a network outage since 2013, while several other blockchains and crypto exchanges have faced issues this year.
Bank Stock Unaffected
Despite the outage, Google Finance data showed no significant impact on Bank of America’s stock price. Even $338 million worth of shares sold by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway between September 30 and October 2 didn’t affect the bank’s stock.
