USDBitcoin Briefly Trades at $0 on Paradex After Starknet Glitch, Forcing Rollback
Database Migration Error Triggers Mass Liquidations During Jan. 19 Maintenance Window
TL;DR
- Bitcoin briefly printed at $0 on Paradex on Jan. 19, 2026, triggering automated liquidations after a database migration error.
- Paradex rolled back the chain to block 1,604,710, canceling all activity during the affected window.
- The incident occurred amid broader volatility, with $875 million liquidated market-wide in 24 hours and $234 million tied to Bitcoin.
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Bitcoin briefly traded at $0 on decentralized perpetuals exchange Paradex on Jan. 19, 2026, after a database migration error during scheduled maintenance corrupted internal pricing data. The glitch appeared around 05:02 UTC, with Paradex’s status page flagging issues at 12:36 a.m. ET. Prices for Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana were affected, causing automated systems to register a zero crypto price and immediately trigger liquidation engines tied to leveraged positions.
Liquidations cascaded within minutes as long positions on Bitcoin perpetual contracts were closed at $0.00, while some short positions executed near prevailing market levels around $92,600. Traders initially suspected a display issue before realizing the pricing failure was systemic. The incident unfolded as Bitcoin had already slid from above $95,000 to roughly $92,284, adding stress to an already volatile crypto price index during the maintenance window.
Paradex engineers identified the root cause as a database migration error that corrupted price feeds used by trading systems. Roughly three hours after the first reports, Paradex Director of Engineering Clement Ho said on Telegram the platform would roll back the chain to block 1,604,710, the last stable state before maintenance began. The rollback canceled all trades, deposits, withdrawals, liquidations, and funding events executed during the affected period.
Platform services were restored after roughly eight hours of downtime, with Paradex stating user funds were safe and warning about impersonator support accounts appearing during the outage. Most open orders were force-canceled, except take-profit and stop-loss orders, as systems were stabilized and markets reopened. Paradex did not disclose the number of affected accounts or the total value liquidated during the incident.
Market data prior to the glitch showed Paradex processing nearly $1.6 billion in trading volume the day before the outage, with approximately $225 million in user deposits on the platform. Open interest stood near $652 million over the previous 24 hours, and the exchange ranked among the top decentralized perpetuals venues with more than $37 billion in reported trading volume over the past 30 days, according to industry data.
Broader market turbulence amplified the impact. Over the prior 24 hours, total crypto liquidations exceeded $875 million, including about $234 million tied to Bitcoin. Starknet’s native token, STRK, fell roughly 3.6% following the incident. The episode unfolded as traders tracked shifts across the coin market cap landscape amid heightened derivatives activity.
User reaction surfaced quickly on social media. One trader wrote: “Okay, when I posted the screenshot, I thought it was a UI bug. Then I saw on the computer that the price came back after going to $0. Now there are thousands of liquidations. This doesn’t look good for @paradex.” The comment circulated as screenshots of the zero-price print spread across trading channels.
The rollback approach drew attention within the decentralized finance community, as exchanges built on immutable ledgers rarely revert chain state. Paradex confirmed the rollback was executed to restore account balances to pre-incident conditions, while trading resumed under normal pricing feeds. The disruption occurred as traders monitored shifts in the crypto price index and coin market cap metrics during a volatile January session.
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
