XTB, one of
Europe’s largest publicly listed brokers (WSE: XTB), experienced a major
platform failure yesterday (Wednesday) that prevented clients from closing
positions for several hours, leaving traders exposed to market movements
without the ability to manage their risk.
However, the
company’s shares at today’s (Thursday’s) open did not show a sharp negative reaction to
the recent run of problems, falling 0.7% and testing 70.92 zlotys.
XTB Platform Outage Blocks
Position Closures During Trading Hours
The
problems started around 4 p.m. local time when users began reporting they could
open new positions but couldn’t close existing ones. The issue persisted
through the evening, with XTB announcing at 10 p.m. that all CFD trading would
be suspended between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. while engineers attempted repairs.
“We
are informing you that due to problems in the functioning of our investment
platform and in order to repair the technical fault, trading on CFD instruments
between 22-23 will be impossible,” the company said in a statement on its
website. “We will keep you informed about the progress of this work on an
ongoing basis. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
After the
scheduled maintenance window, users could again open positions but still
couldn’t close them, extending the lockout well past midnight.
The
problems come shortly after XTB
reported a sharp decline in net profit for the third quarter – one of its
weakest results since late 2022.
No Clear Timeline for
Resolution
By late
Wednesday evening, XTB had not explained what caused the failure or when normal
operations would resume. The company’s silence left traders guessing about the
technical root cause and their potential losses from being unable to react to
market swings.
Social
media filled with speculation about the source of the problem. One theory
gaining traction among technical observers suggested the platform hit a
programming limit known as integer overflow, where a counter tracking
transaction IDs exceeded the maximum value a standard 32-bit integer can hold.
A user
posting on X under the handle kwit_flip wrote
that XTB “just rolled over its INT,” referring to the 4-byte integer
data type. “That’s why you can’t close positions right now,” the user
claimed, noting that transaction numbers had wrapped from positive to negative
values after hitting roughly 2.1 billion.
XTB właśnie przekręciło INT’a.To jest rozmiar 4-bajtowego INTEGERA – to typ danych, którym zapisywane są transakcje na platformie @xtb. Dziś został przekroczony dodatni maksymalny numer transakcji i mamy ujemne wartości.Dlatego nie da się w tej chwili zamknąć pozycji. pic.twitter.com/MPL4Tvj5Oe
— kwitflip (@kwit_flip) November 5, 2025
The theory
remained unverified by the company.
Recent Track Record Under
Scrutiny
The outage
marks the latest in a series of technical problems at XTB. In a recent interview
with Parkiet, board member Filip Kaczmarzyk acknowledged past platform
issues while defending the company’s progress.
“Of
course there were moments when the platform did not work as it should, and such
situations have no right to happen,” Kaczmarzyk said. “It is a
problem for all of us, not just for clients. However, it is definitely not the
case that we only look at the platform when something bad happens. Compared to
what it was two or three years ago, we have also made really huge
progress.”
The timing
proved particularly awkward for XTB, which just days earlier announced
a record 100,000 new clients in October. The company now faces questions
about whether its infrastructure can handle its rapidly growing user base.
Data from
Downdetector showed a sharp spike in problem reports between 4 p.m. and
midnight Wednesday, then dropping to near zero afterward. On Thursday morning,
however, a slight upward trend is visible again:
“So
you’re saying you have a product you make the most money on, where client
reaction time is measured in seconds and minutes because they’re trading on
leverage, but at the same time your product doesn’t work for them for two hours
and they can’t do anything with open positions?” wrote one X user.
XTB has not
yet addressed whether it will compensate clients who suffered losses during the
outage or clarified the complaints process mentioned by customer service
representatives.
Another Issue Following
the August Hack
Given that
XTB refunded
client losses in August after the alleged 150,000 zloty hack drew wide
attention, some investors may hope that the latest case will lead to a similar
outcome.
The
announcement came amid renewed pressure after the
latest victim’s account gained traction on local financial forums and media
outlets. The client described how hackers allegedly carried out simultaneous
buy and sell orders on thinly traded securities, leaving his account
consistently in loss while a separate account captured the gains. The incident
has again raised questions about the platform’s security and investor
protection standards.
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.
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