Yahoo Finance Cryptos Fall After Another Exchange Hack
Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies were lower on Wednesday amid news of another South Korean exchange hack.
Bitcoin was trading at $6,626.10, decreasing 2.27% the Bitfinex exchange, as of 8:39 AM ET (12:39 GMT).
South Korean exchange Bithumb halted trading services after the site was hacked on Wednesday. The sixth largest platform in the world lost around 35 billion won ($31.5 million) of various virtual coins, including Ripple. The coins will be covered by the companies reserves, Bithumb said.
It’s just the latest of a number of coin hacks, as security remains one of the biggest threats to digital coins.
Just two weeks ago, Coinrail lost approximately $37.2 million worth of coins, while hackers stole more than $500 million from Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck in January.
Cryptocurrencies overall were lower after the news, with the coin market cap of total market capitalization falling to $283 billion at the time of writing compared to $291 billion on Tuesday.
Ethereum was lower, falling 3.54% to $522.48 on the Bitfinex exchange. Ripple, the third largest virtual currency, decreased 4.54% to $0.53028 while Litecoin was at $96.129, down 4.18%.
The digital coins have struggled in recent weeks amid accusations of price manipulation and a Bank of International Settlement report saying alternative coins are unscalable.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein is not ready to dismiss alternative currencies just yet. While he is not a fan, he thinks cryptocurrencies could become a established asset class in the financial world.
“I can’t say why it [cryptocurrencies] should work, but if it did work, I’d be able to explain it in hindsight why it did,” he said. “I’m not in the school of saying Gee, because it’s uncomfortable with me, because it’s unfamiliar, this can’t happen.”
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