A weekend hack hit Coinrail, South Korea's virtual currency trading platform, resulting in a loss of more than $40 million.
19,5 million dollars of NPXS tokens were stolen, issued by Pundi X as part of the ICO - Initial Coin Offer - project, which stands for initial offer of new currency; $13,8 million from Aston X, an ICO created to fund a platform for decentralizing documents; $5,8 million in tokens for ICO Dent; and over $1,1 million of Tron project from China. Coinrail's market in South Korea is small, but it ranks among the top marketplaces by trading volume, according to coinmarketcap.com. The website of the Coinrail platform states that 70% of the virtual coins present in the accounts have been checked, while an investigation is underway for the remaining 30%.
Of great interest is the sharp drop in the price of the most famous cryptocurrency in the world - Bitcoin - which lost 7,04% after the news of the hacker attack and was traded this afternoon at 6.751 dollars. Bitcoin's parable began in December last year when the digital currency was worth $22, while today it traded for less than $7, causing a loss of more than 50% of its value since the beginning of the year. Competing virtual currencies such as Ethereum and Ripple also fell by around 6 percent. The total value of cryptocurrencies stood at $830 billion between 2017 and 2018, at the peak of investor attention to this market, while it reached a two-month low at $294 billion.
What emerges from this story is still the extreme uncertainty around cryptocurrencies, especially in reference to the poor regulation of the sector. Those who buy Bitcoin, Ethereum or other virtual currencies should see their coins guaranteed and be able to keep digital savings in a private wallet and not in a public square where they can be subjected to virtual attacks.
Investor fear is reflected in the series of thefts and collapses recorded on these markets in recent months: such as the theft of about half a billion dollars of cryptocurrencies from the Japanese house Coincheck or the uncertainty due to the fact that if hackers have stolen millions of dollars on a relatively small market, could enter larger markets and cause much worse damage. Especially in the last few months, we should have learned that if solidity and stability are not perceived within the market, investors will begin to sell and all the others will follow suit.
