Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies were lower on Monday, with bitcoin falling after news that South Korean exchange Coinrail was hacked.
Bitcoin was trading at $6,765.30, falling 7.11% the Bitfinex exchange, as of 8:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT), down nearly 50% from the beginning of the year.
Other digital coins were lower on Monday, with Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, falling 6.66% to $531.38 on the Bitfinex exchange. Ripple, the third largest virtual currency, decreased 8.71% to $0.57625 while Litecoin was at $106.68, down 6.15%.
South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinrail announced over the weekend that it was hacked, prompting a sell-off in bitcoin. The incident sparked new concerns over cyber security at virtual coin platforms
The hack caused a loss of about 30% of the coins traded on the exchange. While the company did not reveal on how much the coins were worth, local news source Yonhap estimated 40 billion won ($37.28 million) were stolen.
South Korea is one of the top cryptocurrency trading centers, with many of the biggest exchanges.
The hack of Coinrail is also just the latest of numerous virtual currency exchange cyber attacks. Earlier this year Coincheck was hacked, with over half a billion dollars of digitual currency stolen. In July 2017 the data of nearly 32,000 users was compromised, allowing hackers to transfer coins on digital exchange Bithumb. Meanwhile in December, Youbit lost 4,000 bitcoins or 17% of its assets.
And in 2014 Toykyo-based Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy after it lost half a billion dollars worth of bitcoin. The exchange had once handled nearly 80% of global crypto trade.
The coin market cap was also lower, with total market capitalization at $297 billion at the time of writing compared to $346 billion on Friday.