Coinbase users reported experiencing significant delays in Solana transactions, lasting for hours, due to network congestion triggered by the launch of US President Donald Trump’s memecoin on January 18.
On January 19, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong addressed the issue on the X platform, adding that the company’s “team is working hard on expanding our Solana infrastructure.”
“There’s been a surge in Solana activity over the past few days; we didn’t anticipate this level of demand,” Mr. Armstrong explained.
The network issues on Solana were linked to the recent memecoin launches by Trump and Melania, which took place just days before the presidential inauguration on January 20.
Coinbase’s delays seemed partly unrelated to Solana’s, with some users reporting that transaction settlement times on Coinbase lagged behind the blockchain network’s by several hours. On January 20, an X user shared that their transaction on Coinbase had been delayed by 15 hours.
Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, spoke about the issue on the X platform on January 19, saying that the company’s “team is working hard on scaling our Solana infrastructure.”
In a January 20 X post, Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius, a vendor of Solana infrastructure, stated that “Coinbase is currently estimating 100 minutes to process USDC transactions on Solana.”
Mumtaz clarified, “To be clear, this issue is not related to the Solana blockchain itself.”
Coinbase acknowledged the delays, stating, “We are aware that some Solana network users may experience delays in sending and receiving transactions. However, purchases, sales, and fiat withdrawals/deposits remain unaffected.”
Trump’s advisory team launched the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin on January 18, followed by the Official Melania (MELANIA) token on January 19, both on the Solana network, in the lead-up to Trump’s presidential inauguration on January 20.
Since the token launch, Moonshot, the platform Trump recommended for purchasing the memecoin, has reported over 200,000 new on-chain users. Coinbase remains the most widely used cryptocurrency exchange for retail users in the United States.
Despite the congestion and reports of failed transactions, Solana has maintained 100% uptime for the last 90 days, with no outages recorded since February 6, 2024, according to its status page.