The Bank of America outage has sparked renewed interest in decentralized finance, highlighting the growing dissatisfaction with traditional banking systems.
This event shows the importance of reliability and transparency in managing customer funds.
On October 2, tens of thousands of Bank of America customers faced an unexpected network outage that left many unable to access their accounts or view their balances.
The disruption, which began around 4:26 pm UTC, resulted in over 18,000 complaints within 15 minutes, according to Downdetector. Most of the issues were tied to the bank’s mobile and online banking platforms, with 98% of the complaints originating from those services.
Despite Bank of America informing CNN that the outages had “largely been resolved,” many users took to social media and Downdetector to dispute the claim.
One frustrated user, Corey, wrote, “Everyone is saying it’s fixed, it’s not!!” Another, Buff Barnaby, added, “Still not fixed, been out at least EIGHT hours!”
Many customers expressed outrage and confusion, especially when their account balances showed $0, while their debts remained unaffected.
“My money is gone but conveniently my debt is still there. Bank of America sucks,” commented one user, Anchor Baby, on X (formerly Twitter).
In addition to digital services, in-branch operations were disrupted, with customers unable to process deposits or withdrawals, although some ATMs still allowed limited access without showing balances.
This incident has sparked a wider debate about the reliability of traditional financial systems and reignited calls for decentralization.
Proponents of Bitcoin and decentralized finance (DeFi) pointed to this event as evidence of the importance of self-custody of funds. Unlike traditional banks, Bitcoin has not experienced a network outage since 2013, further fueling arguments for a shift toward decentralized alternatives.
