Bitcoin prices fell hard on Tuesday after $72 million worth of the virtual currency was stolen from a Hong Kong exchange.
The Bitcoin theft occurred through the Bitfinex exchange, which is the largest USD exchange outside of China. It included 119,756 Bitcoin, which represents .75% of all of the virtual currency that is in circulation. The theft had the currency being stolen from individuals’ online wallets.
It’s unknown exactly how the Bitcoin theft occurred. It’s possible that it was an inside job from employees working for the Bitfinex exchange. However, it’s also possible that hackers broke their way into the system to steal the coins. Either way, it sent Bitcoin prices falling by 23%, reports Reuters.
News of the hack caused Bitcoin prices to drop from $613 early Tuesday to $480, at its lowest. It did recover some as the day went on and only suffered a 12% drop to $540 late on Tuesday. Prices for the virtual currency were up earlier this year, but dropped lately due to an upcoming event called the “halving.”
Bitfinex is closing down its page until its investigation into the hack is completed. It’s unknown how much of the exchange’s total assets were stolen. There also hasn’t been confirmation that its insurance can cover the cost of the theft, The Wall Street Journal notes.
“Mt. Gox had a far bigger effect than this will,” Jack Liu, OKCoin’s chief strategy officer, told Financial Times. “Now we have more clear cases for using bitcoin than we did then, people will still find it attractive to come back to this space and grow the ecosystem.”
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