The almost six-hour shutdown of WhatsApp on Monday affected the trading volume of assets from cryptocurrencies to oil, and even the rapid transition to alternative platforms such as Telegram has limited serious disruptions.
Despite the fact that many financial institutions discourage employees from using services such as WhatsApp and other Facebook platforms that went down on Monday, their convenience has made them popular among traders communicating with clients in over-the-counter (OTC) markets.
Facebook Inc was accused of a misconfiguration that led to the shutdown of WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger, which was the largest shutdown in history.
Among those affected was BCB Group, a London-based crypto firm offering over-the-counter trading, as well as others. Facebook services stopped working at around noon Eastern time (16:00 GMT), a key period for BCB traders.
"WhatsApp stopped working at the most inopportune time, when the largest trading volume occurs," CEO Oliver von Landsberg Sadie said.
As a result of the problems with the connection, the trading volume fell by 15% per day.
According to VoxSmart CEO Oliver Blower, the use of WhatsApp among financial traders, tracked by VoxSmart's communications surveillance firm, has increased dramatically as banks agree that customers want to use the platform, even if bosses prefer employees to use official messaging channels.
Today, VoxSmart tracks three to five million messages weekly by asset class, including between banks and customers.
The shutdown of WhatsApp on Monday was more of a nuisance than a serious violation.
For example, the market communication in India via WhatsApp has moved to Telegram, where there are fewer restrictions on the size of group chats. The shutdown also occurred after markets closed in most of Asia.
OTC traders in the oil markets also suffered, although the blow was again mitigated by the use of other platforms.
Oil traders said WhatsApp was commonly used to transmit information about orders in Europe and Asia.
