Bitcoin, Ripple, Stellar react negatively on $30 million hack in South Korea's Bithumb

The moment Bitcoin tries to rise above all odds, it is immediately dragged down by ongoing hacking at South Korea cryptocurrency exchanges. Yesterday, Bitcoin breathed over $6,700-mark making the gains very promising, so much so, that many predicted it may go back to $7,000. Currently, it is once again trading today at lows of 2018, and other major cryptocurrencies like Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar and Litecoin have also followed the negative trend. Within two weeks’ time, another South Korean cryptocurrency exchange named Bithumb has been hacked and the amount was massive to somewhat $30 million. This has created panic among investors being reflected in the price of cryptocurrencies. 

According to CoinMarketCap data, Bitcoin was trading at $6,663.80 down by 1.07% with market cap of $113.98 billion, followed by selling in Ripple as it was trading at $0.5375, down by 1.62% with valuation of $20.85 billion. 

Bitcoin Cash also tumbled by 0.86% trading at $875.12, while EOS was below 1.82% trading at $10.36, Litecoin lower by 1.61% trading at $96.55 and Stellar plunging by 2.38% trading at $0.2290. 

There are somewhat 1,601 cryptocurrencies listed on CoinMarketCap with Bitcoin dominating the market, however, almost all the digital coins took beating from investors. 

This was fuelled when Bithumb, a South Korean crypto exchange, stated that cryptocurrencies worth $30 million were hacked. 

Cryptocurrencies are traded highly in South Korea and Japan market, earlier a Goldman Sachs report mentioned.  

Bithumb on its twitter said, “All deposit and withdrawal service will be stopped to make sure the security. We will keep notice you of the restart of the service. We apologize for your inconvenience and thanks for your understanding.”

Bithumb is currently world’s sixth largest cryptocurrency exchange in volume terms. 

Following the hacking, Bithumb has blocked trading in 11 countries as a part of its revised internal regulations aimed to prevent money laundering using its system. 

According to CoinMarketCap, Bithumb’s 24-hour trading volume has overtaken Upbit’s, standing at about $250.41 million. The Kakao-backed exchange Upbit’s trading volume for the same time period is approximately $235.1 million. 

Bithumb has assured investors that they have taken necessary steps for overcoming the hacking and are cooperating with the government. 

This would be second exchange, as on June 11, Coinrail also a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange issued a statement on its website saying, on June 10 there was a system check due to the hacking attempt at dawn.

CoinRail at that time said, "Two-thirds of the coins confirmed to have been leaked are covered by freezing / recalling through consultation with each coach and related exchanges. The remaining one-third of coins are being investigated with investigators, relevant exchanges and coin developers."

Trading in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has always been a cause of concern for most of experts, including philanthropist Warren Buffett. 

As opinions vary, one section of people believe that Bitcoin has created a new change in internet trading which has given freedom to investors. While other section believes that Bitcoin is like a soap bubble which can blast any time, because it has no regulatory backing and is mostly used for finance terrorism and tax evading. 

In India, one Bitcoin is valued at Rs 4,52,619.06.