European bitcoin exchange BTC-e was offline for several hours today after the site said that it was the target of a distributed denial-of service (DDoS) attack.

The site is intermittently available at press time, though according to data produced on the exchange’s front page, trades are being executed amid the user connectivity problems.

Posts on social media suggest that the downtime lasted as many as four hours. The exchange previously reported that it was being attacked, and the downtime sparked concerns that the exchange had been compromised.

The exchange, believed to be located somewhere in Eastern Europe, has been hit with DDoS attacks in the past.

The downtime comes during an increase in average bitcoin prices in USD and CNY markets. BTC-e reported 10,019 BTC in 24-hour volume.

A representative for BTC-e did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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