Every 24-hour interval in that location are new stories of travel disruptions and public gatherings in Asia being cancelled due to the threat of the COVID-xix virus, AKA the coronavirus. Cryptocurrency and traditional markets take also been affected, with Bitcoin dropping 3% in value due to the virus being detected in Italian republic. When it comes to crypto exchanges handling the spread of the virus, Coinbase is preparing for the worst case scenario.

According to a certificate shared publicly by CEO Brian Armstrong, Coinbase is preparing a four-tier escalation response to COVID-19. Each phase of the program will be triggered by an increment in the number of people infected with the coronavirus or local governments responding with quarantines in close proximity to Coinbase offices.

Three phases of Coinbase's response

Once in that location accept been more 100 cases of "in-the-wild person-to-person virus manual", Phase 1 volition take effect. Coinbase'due south plan includes pocket-size measures similar increasing the frequency of cleaning their offices and restricting "role visitors to essential personnel only." However, it as well gives employees the option of working from abode.

The second stage volition be implemented when there are k cases similar to those in Phase 1, or some form of government-imposed quarantine is in effect. It escalates the Coinbase response past stopping all visitors to their offices and no longer offering meals on site.

The 3rd phase, however, comes with a disclaimer: "Containment has failed, it's going to be a wild ride." Coinbase employees would be required to work from home, and 3rd-party services in offices for cleaning and snacks would almost likely be unavailable for an indefinite time. Offices will essentially be in lockdown.

Where Coinbase volition be implementing these measures

The crypto substitution has offices in the United States, Japan, Ireland, and the United kingdom. A Stage one response is currently in identify for their Nippon office.

At the time of the document's release, Coinbase has restricted business travel for its employees to Mainland china, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, and Due south Korea. Despite these measures, Armstrong remains confident "the risk of COVID-2019 coronavirus to most employees is low":

"Our expectation is that the measured mortality rate (one time depression-severity cases are included in the overall count) will fall significantly and that we'll encounter limited transmission in the due west, where there volition be fewer high density multi-generational housing situations."

This is not the offset trouble Coinbase has faced. In June 2022, the cryptocurrency trading platform crashed, causing the toll of Bitcoin to fall past $ane,400.