Crypto Carnage Continues: Bitcoin Plunges Below $7,000 After Korean Exchange Hack

After earlier weakness driven by headlines of South Korean exchange hack, Bitcoin (and the rest of the crypto space) just took another more serious leg lower, crashing below $7000 for the first time since April with the biggest drop since mid-January…

As we detailed earlier,  the drop comes after South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinrail said there was a “cyber intrusion” in its system.

This triggered selling across the entire crypto space (Coinrail trades around 50 currencies)…

Coinrail said in a statement on its website that it’s reviewing its system due to hacking attempts. The exchange says it has managed to freeze all exposed NPXS, NPER and ATX coins, and that other cryptocurrencies are now being kept in a cold wallet. The statement is the only content available on the exchange’s homepage, and contact information could not immediately be located.

Today’s drop in the cryptospace pushes Bitcoin back to being down over 50% this year…

While the fact of a ‘hack’ is notable, we do caution any panic as Coinrail is only the 98th largest crypto-exchange, with a 24-hour volume average of about $2.65 million, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com.  

The crypto market is also under pressure, in the wake of the news that the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has launched a probe into four major crypto exchanges.

Source: Coin360.io

All of the top-100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization are in the red over the 24 hours to press time, while total market capitalization is down by over $30 bln over the same period, according to Coinmarketcap.