Bitcoin Crashes After Hack

Another day and another hack in the crypto world.

This from Investing.com.

This time the hack caused a mighty fall in the price of Bitcoin and other cryptos over the weekend.

Reportedly, a South Korean crypto exchange was hacked, which called it a cyberintrusion.

No matter the name, investors in the space had the same knee jerk reaction that has plagued the space, and that was to sell.

Let’s get right to discussing it.

Who’s to blame this time?

A relatively small crypto exchange called Coinrail is being blamed for this decline. The Wall Street Journal reported that alt coins to the tune of 70% of its digital assets were stolen.

The sleuths moved their spoils to what is called a cold wallet, according to the Journal. These cold wallets are not connected to the internet. Observers think that as much as $40 million of alt coins were made off with by the culprit or culprits.

As the news went viral, investors moved out. The loot caused cryptos to plunge more than $14 million in a short amount of time on Sunday, according to the Journal.

Sell, sell, sell

On Friday of last week, Bitcoin’s price seemed to be moving higher, however the news of this so-called cyberintrusion caused panic. In fact, Bitcoin sold off to near the lows we saw at the beginning of the year. As usual, the event served to drag prices other cryptos in the space lower, too.

During Friday’s late hours, Bitcoin was trading around $7,600. At the time of writing Sunday evening, the price was hovering around $6,700.

It should be noted that Coinrail is a small exchange. So the idea that traders would sell on news that it was hacked is interesting to say the least.

This is just one more example that shows how investors should carefully consider the space. There are going to be many more hacks like this, but the space’s resilience is noteworthy.

Author: Martin North

Martin North is the Principal of Digital Finance Analytics

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