Cryptocurrencies across the board fell on Tuesday as investors reacted to the news of this week’s Bitcoin hack.
There has been a steep decline in the price of bitcoin and other digital currencies following this weekend’s hacking of South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinrail. An estimated $42 billion has been wiped off the value of the crypto markets since the hack. Investors were made aware of the Bitcoin hack after a tweet was posted by Coinrail breaking the news.
Coinrail confirmed later on its a website that on Sunday its system was the victim of a “cyber intrusion”. The hack saw approximately 30% of the coins traded on the Coinrail exchange get stolen. Coinrail as yet has not quantified the exact value of how much was stolen. However, the Yonhap news agency based in South Korea reported that around 40 billion won worth of digital coins was estimated to have been stolen.
In its statement regarding the Bitcoin hack, Coinrail said: “Seventy percent of total coin and token reserves have been confirmed to be safely stored and moved to a cold wallet [not connected to the internet]. Two-thirds of stolen cryptocurrencies were withdrawn or frozen in partnership with related exchanges and coin companies. For the rest, we are looking into it with an investigative agency, related exchanges and coin developers.”
Coinrail offers over 50 cryptocurrencies for trading and was among the world’s Top 100 most active exchanges. Prior to the hack, Coinrail operated with a 24-hour volume of approximately $2.65 million.
Bitcoin Hack Causes Further Loss of Confidence in Crypto Markets
In the immediate aftermath of the Coinrail hack, $500 was wiped off the price of Bitcoin within just an hour. By the end of the weekend, the daddy of the cryptocurrencies suffered a 12% decline. Other virtual currencies saw heavy declines too as investors showed their lack of confidence in the crypto markets.
Investor enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies has noticeably fallen partly because a series of high profile cyber hacks. One of the largest this year was at the end of January when approximately $500 million of virtual currencies were stolen from Coincheck Inc. the large Japanese exchange.
Having hit their highest prices since January, Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital currencies dropped to a fresh two month low.
Sunday’s hack sparked new fears that the security at crypto exchanges is simply not good enough and is deterring investors.
At time of writing, the price of Bitcoin is $6498.10, down 3.90% or $263.50 over the last 24 hours.
