Bitcoin price hits 2018-low; investors book massive losses

Bitcoin price extended its losses on Tuesday, hitting its lowest in 2018 after a cryptocurrency exchange was hacked over the weekend, triggering a steep fall in cryptocurrencies amid renewed concerns about security at virtual currency exchanges.

On the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp, Bitcoin was last trading at $6825.36, down nearly 1 per cent. With this prices slipped below Bitcoin's 2018-low of $6,874 hit on February 5. 

Bitcoin prices had fallen over 6 per cent on Monday, following a sharp dip of 10.8 per cent on Friday. The prices have fallen roughly 66 per cent from its all-time peak of $20,000 hit around mid-December 2017.

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinrail was hacked over the weekend. In a statement on its website on Monday, Coinrail said its system was hit by “cyber intrusion” on Sunday, causing a loss for about 30 per cent of the coins traded on the exchange. It did not quantify its value, but in an unsourced

report local news outlet Yonhap news estimated that about 40 billion won ($37.28 million) worth of virtual coins were stolen.

The heist at Coinrail, a relatively small South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, sent the price of bitcoin tumbling to 2018-low as it once again highlighted the security risks and the weak regulation of global cryptocurrency markets.

South Korea is one of the world’s major cryptocurrency trading centers, and is home to one of the most heavily trafficked virtual coin exchanges, Bithumb.

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This is the second such incident after Japan’s cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck was hacked in a high-profile theft of over half a billion dollars worth of digital currency.

In 2014, Tokyo-based Mt Gox, which once handled 80 per cent of the world’s bitcoin trades, filed for bankruptcy after losing bitcoins worth around half a billion dollars. More recently, in December last year, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Youbit shut down and filed for bankruptcy after being hacked twice.