PayPal experienced a significant technical outage on Thursday that temporarily prevented thousands of customers worldwide from accessing their accounts and completing transactions.

The financial technology company confirmed a system-wide issue affecting multiple products, including account withdrawals, express checkout, cryptocurrency services, and its peer-to-peer payment app Venmo. The disruption began at 10:53 UTC and was resolved approximately two hours later.

Platform outage monitor Downdetector recorded nearly 9,000 user-submitted problem reports during the incident. Customers took to social media to express their frustration, with many sharing screenshots of login error messages.

"Please check your entries and try again" was a common alert encountered by users attempting to access their accounts. The brief outage highlighted the platform's critical role in digital financial transactions.

Cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Kraken also reported transaction and deposit delays during the disruption. The incident occurred on a day when bitcoin had surged to over $98,000, potentially amplifying user concerns.

PayPal reported 432 million active accounts as of 30 September, underscoring the widespread impact of such a technical failure.

"The system issue was swiftly resolved," a PayPal spokesperson stated, emphasising the company's quick response to the technical difficulties.

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