Billions of dollars worth value of bitcoin and other digital currencies were wiped off after a cyber-heist at a little-known virtual currency exchange in South Korea.
South Korea has emerged as a hotbed for trading in virtual currencies over the last year. Coinrail is one of its less-well-known trading platforms.
해킹공격시도로 인한 시스템 점검중입니다. 일부코인(펀디엑스,NPXS)이 확인되었으며 추가적인 코인피해가 있는지 여부를 확인중입니다. 추후 자세한 사항은 재공지하겠습니다 / There has been an cyber intrusion in our system. We're confirming it and some coins(Pundi X, NPXS) are confirmed.
— coinrail (@Coinrail_Korea) June 10, 2018
Just after South Korea’s Coinrail declared that it had been targeted by cyber-thieves; price of bitcoin dropped by more than 7%. In a statement Monday, the exchange said that it had undergone a security violation in which hackers stole about 30% of its virtual currencies.
Coinrail said it had for the time being suspended trading in digital currencies. The exchange is entirely cooperating with investigators to try to track down the lost funds. The exchange did not disclose the exact worth of tokens stolen. The theft was of less popular cryptocurrencies in place of famous ones like Bitcoin itself.
Still, the news sent has shaken the virtual currency markets. Along with bitcoin, prices of other commonly traded digital currencies like ethereum also sunk. Nearly $30 billion in cryptocurrency wealth was wiped in about seven hours of trading, as per the data.
Bitcoin was trading at around $6,750 in early afternoon trading in Asia. That’s very near to the lowest level in about two months and is around half the price at which it started the year.
