Bitcoin price takes a dive after another cryptocurrency exchange hack

The exchange in question is called Coinrail, and if you visit its website right now you’ll see a “System maintenance” message that tells you more than they’re just updating the servers. The devil’s in the detail – the site is down because it got hacked over the weekend. The statement on Coinrail’s website says that some (but not all) of the cryptocurrency exchange’s digital currency was stolen by hackers.

Coinrail claims that 70% of the cryptocurrencies it holds are being stored safely in a cold wallet which is not connected to the internet, and thus considerably more difficult for criminals to access. Coinrail hasn’t released much information about what has occurred, but has released released the names of a few of the tokens affected in the hack: ATC from Aston, NPXS tokens from the Pundi X project, and NPER project tokens. In all, the hackers are thought to have stolen about 30% of Coinrail’s virtual currency, and that news has sent shockwaves through the markets.

So far this year Bitcoin is down about 50% in value. On Sunday alone it fell 6% after news of the Coinrail hack broke.

And it’s not just Bitcoin that’s suffering, other commonly traded digital currencies like Ethereum have also taken a dive. The problem with Bitcoin seems to be its very volatility – the thing which attracted many investors when its price was rocketing skywards last year, and is now proving a challenge as more people view cybersecurity as a huge threat to virtual currencies.

Source: grahamcluley.com