Cryptocurrency exchange ChangeNow made an unprecedented move by honouring the original prices of frozen Dogecoin (DOGE) transactions
The global financial markets were thrown into a state of turmoil by the GameStop and WallStreetBets saga. The hype percolated to the cryptocurrency market, with the price of DOGE pushed to a new all-time high.
Retail investors pushed DOGE’s price by over 1,000% within the space of a few hours, causing problems for several cryptocurrency exchanges. The cryptocurrency momentarily broke into the top ten but lost its momentum a few days later.
Due to the large buy orders of DOGE, most crypto exchanges had to halt DOGE transactions on their platforms.
ChangeNow, a non-custodial service created for fast and straightforward cryptocurrency transactions, also faced similar issues. The cryptocurrency exchange had to delay transactions as its platform became overloaded with orders. Hence, prompting ChangeNow to halt transactions.
When the exchanges halted DOGE transactions, the rally lost steam and the cryptocurrency began to trade lower on several platforms. However, ChangeNow decided to keep its promise to its users by processing their orders at the frozen price. This means the cryptocurrency exchange honoured the original prices of Dogecoin transactions, despite the decision causing a massive financial impact on the company.
ChangeNow said, “Reacting to the situation, by the end of 29 January, ChangeNow promised to complete all frozen transactions at the price that was promised to users, by introducing a fixed rate on DOGE“.
The cryptocurrency exchange notified its users of this move via a tweet, revealing that the company is taking all the losses from the rate plunges upon itself. ChangeNow assured all its users that every trader would get the DOGE they purchased regardless of the technical issues.
This decision is unprecedented in the cryptocurrency space as no crypto exchange has ever honoured original prices in times of massive price volatility and delay in transactions. ChangeNow CMO Pauline Shangett, in a statement, said, “This is the second time in six months that the price of Dogecoin has undergone extreme volatility. As soon as we realised that we were the last exchange still supporting DOGE transactions, we discussed the situation and immediately decided—if our network is unable to handle the extra volume, we will have to support our users“.
The move by ChangeNow puts it in a class of its own, and traders on the platform would appreciate not losing their funds to market volatility.