Coinrail Hack See’s Markets Crash As $40 Million Stolen

The markets are down this morning in the wake of an alleged $40 Million hack of South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, Coinrail. Given current political activities within Singapore (the summit involving both the US President and the Leader of North Korea) we did expect the markets to be a little shaky this morning, the current view however is far worse than we expected. Coinrail have since confirmed that they have been victim of an attack, which has seen around a 30% loss of coins traded on the exchange, this comes in at an estimated value just shy of $40 Million. The remaining coins within Coinrail seem to have been secured by Coinrail through the migration of assets onto cold storage wallets. According to Reuters:

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

“Coinrail said the balance 70 percent of virtual coins are now secure in its cold wallet, which operates on platforms not directly connected to the internet. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the lost coins were stored in the more insecure hot wallet.”

“Coinrail confirmed in its statement that the exchange is fully cooperating with a police investigation into the hacking, and that trading has been suspended for now. The company wasn’t immediately available for further comments.”

You can see the full report by Reuters for yourself, here- https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-markets-bitcoin-korea/bitcoin-tumbles-as-hackers-hit-s-korean-exchange-coinrail-idUKKBN1J703I Overall, this news has impacted the markets massively and as a result, the majority of the major currencies have tumbled. The tumble is now seeing cryptocurrencies hit new 2-month lows and as a result of this, we expect to see currencies continue to fall. People are going to start selling off and, if the markets try and recover, a lot of resistance is going to be met. Overall, the outlook is pretty bleak as a result of this. For now, we are going to watch how the markets move around this news. With current estimations standing at $40 Million worth stolen from Coinrail, if this goes up, the markets may take a second hit. As it stands, this news is going to continue having an impact on the markets, therefore, we need to watch and see what happens.