Bitcoin Drops to Zero on Paradex Exchange After Glitch, Rollback Restores Funds

Highlights:

• Bitcoin showed $0 on Paradex after a system glitch overnight.
• Paradex rolled back the chain state and confirmed all user funds were safe.
• Rollback of blockchain records sparks debate as networks face rising emergency responses worldwide.

The decentralized exchange Paradex faced a severe disruption early Monday when Bitcoin briefly showed a price of $0. The sudden collapse was linked to a database migration problem that affected the Paradex blockchain, its explorer, bridge, and API.

The incident was first noted at 12:36 a.m. ET on the Paradex status page. Social media users had already reported a wave of liquidations as the price displayed at zero. The shock spread quickly across trading communities, raising concerns about user funds.

🩸🚨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 ☠️ https://t.co/m4YbnfHkgN pic.twitter.com/QbKd3U432s

— Sniper ₿ (@sniiperrB) January 19, 2026

By 2:00 a.m. ET, Paradex identified the problem and started rolling back the Paradex Chain. Built on Starknet, an Ethereum layer 2 scaling network, the team restored the chain to block 1,604,710, which was the last correct state before maintenance.

Recovery Process and Paradex’s Official Statements

“We have identified the issue and will be rolling back the chain state to block 1604710,” the Paradex update stated. “This is the time before the DB maintenance and is the last known correct state. All accounts will be restored to the state before the DB maintenance. We will provide more updates as we continue with rollback.”

Just after this announcement, Paradex decided to cancel all open orders to avoid any more losses. At 5:00 a.m. ET, the exchange confirmed that all user funds were safe. The team reiterated that the rollback was going according to plan. “Recovery efforts are ongoing. We can confirm that all user funds are SAFU,” read a post at 5:16 a.m. ET. 

Later updates confirmed that the platform re‑enabled vault withdrawals. The team kept deposits and withdrawals for Gigavault paused for up to 24 hours. Paradex warned traders about fake support accounts that impersonated staff during the outage. The exchange urged users to rely only on official channels.

We’ve received reports of fake support accounts posing as our team.

Please remember:
+ Official updates only come from this account
+ We will never ask for your private keys
+ If another account messages you first, it is a scam

— Paradex (@paradex) January 19, 2026

Market Impact and Liquidation Figures

According to data from CoinGlass, over $852 million had been liquidated in the last 24 hours, with $234 million of this amount directly related to Bitcoin. Traders lost heavily as their positions were liquidated. This incident brought to the fore the risks that come with decentralized trading platforms, especially during technical upgrades. Although the rollback meant that there was no permanent damage, the temporary price of $0 sent the market into a panic.

DeFiLlama reported that Paradex’s perps protocol holds about $641 million in open interest. Over the last 30 days, the platform has processed nearly $37 billion in trading volume, which highlights the scale of exposure during the glitch.

Rolling back blockchain records is a big deal because people trust that confirmed transactions never change. Most networks pause activity or fix the problem instead of reversing trades. A rollback means safety systems failed and raises questions about who controls the network.

These debates are happening more often during emergencies. Berachain paused its network and used a hard fork after a $128 million Balancer hack, stopping more losses without changing records. Flow faced backlash after suggesting a rollback to reverse a $3.9 million exploit, which worried partners and users.