Beware! Bitcoin price plunges; Experts slash target by a whopping amount

Ever since the weekend hacking of South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinrail hit headlines, Bitcoin prices have hastened their downtrend. Bitcoin price was just recovering from the lows it had fallen to when this latest setback occurred. However, even as price gained marginally on Wednesday, it is still down nearly 53 per cent so far in 2018, after soaring more than 1,300 per cent last year.

The virtual currency is nearing its lowest level of the year of just under $6,000 on the Bitstamp platform. 

Meanwhile, comparison site finder.com.au’s cryptocurrency experts have halved their year-end target for Bitcoin. The experts had pegged a value of $43,370 per bitcoin by December 31. Now, they believe the cryptocurrency can reach $18,883 by December 31. 

The year-end target is still massive as compared to current market price. Bitcoin was trading a tad above $6500 in Wednesday's session. 

“Bitcoin is in a liquidity vacuum at the moment. Volumes on the crypto exchanges are now below $5 billion per day, their lowest levels since November 2017, before things got out of hand,” said Israel-based Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst, at eToro to Reuters.

“As the trading activity is very low, even a small amount of pressure can move the price quite drastically. Kind of like if you hit a baseball in outer space."

On Sunday, Coinrail, a relatively small cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, said its system was hit by “cyber intrusion,” causing a loss of about 30 percent of the coins traded on the exchange. It did not quantify its value, but local news outlet Yonhap news estimated in an unsourced report that about 40 billion won ($37.28 million) worth of virtual coins were stolen.

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The latest hacking wiped out more than $40 billion in the market value of the cryptocurrency market on Sunday. Bitcoin itself declined by nearly $1,000.

Bitcoin was able to recover after Sunday’s bloodbath on Monday, but it has since continued its downtrend.

Other digital currencies also declined in line with bitcoin. Ethereum, the second-largest by market value, was down 5 per cent over the past 24 hours to $496.07, while the third-largest, Ripple, lost 4.3 per cent to $0.55, reported Reuters citing coinmarketcap.com data.