Many cryptocurrencies including few of the most popular cryptocurrencies suffered in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin, which has had a rocky 2018 so far also decreased by 3 percent to $11,364 (as of this writing). The market-wide decline can be associated with recent events that occurred in Japan. Coincheck, a Japanese crypto exchange was a victim of a recent cyber attack which saw $400 million in NEM tokens being stolen.
NEM, being the 7th largest cryptocurrency at the time has since dropped to 10th following the heist. No one knows or how what exactly happened that made all the coins vanish. However, Coincheck is trying to figure out what happened. Meanwhile, the exchange plans to reimburse its customers that have lost a lot of their money. Over 260,000 customers were affected by the attack and will be compensated accordingly at a rate of $0.81 per NEM token.
Even though customers are being reimbursed, they’re still at a loss as NEM went as high as $1.11 when the heist took place. It’s still trading at $0.95, so Japanese investors have faced quite the loss.
However, it’s not just the Japanese who have suffered, the entire cryptocurrency market, in general, has suffered. Almost every cryptocurrency has gone down in the last 24 hours with a few exceptions. Ethereum fell to $1,201, down 1.95 percent. Other popular currencies like Cardano, Stellar, Litecoin and NEM also fell. NEM falling didn’t come as a big surprise because that was the currency that was stolen from the Japanese exchange.
As mentioned earlier, some currencies such as Ripple and NEO are the ones who didn’t seem to fall in the last 24 hours. Although it may appear as if Ripple is growing, it’s actually recovering from a fall. Ripple had a rocky 24 hours as well as the currency fluctuated massively. Ripple’s currently trading at $1.34 at the time of this writing.
NEO, on the other hand, has been more or less consistent over the past few days. Not a long time ago the entire cryptocurrency market saw $250 billion being wiped out due to a massive crash. During that crash, NEO was perhaps the only currency still going strong despite the others declining massively.
The currency has a lot of potential and has been dubbed as the ‘Ethereum Killer‘. Many people see the potential in NEO as the next potential leader in the smart contract market and it’s clear from its performance in the market.
The cryptocurrency market had an amazing 2017. The year saw the market rise to prominence with many currencies hitting record highs. However, 2018 has so far only brought more and more problems for the market. With many countries looking to discourage people from cryptocurrency trading, the market tends to suffer. South Korea and China have led the charge in regulating and banning cryptocurrency trading and the US has also started tightening its grip over the cryptocurrency market.
With regulation having had a huge impact on the crypto market, the recent cyber attack doesn’t help. Attacks like these are becoming more and more regular nowadays. Cryptocurrency tokens equal money and lots of people know that, including the hackers. Recently, an attack saw millions of dollars worth IOTA tokens stolen and now the most recent Japanese exchange cyber hack.
The safety of people’s coins is in question unless exchanges go the extra mile to ensure their users’ funds remain safe. With the recent Japanese cyber attack which has seen one of the largest if not THE largest amount that was stolen ever from a crypto attack, many people have lost faith in the cryptocurrency market. Attacks like these trigger panic selling which is why the entire market is down again.
The cryptocurrency market is in big trouble right now as investors keep on losing. However, it might be a blessing in disguise as it may drive out the speculators who inflate the market in the first place. If that happens, then cryptocurrency may perhaps be used for its intended purpose of providing solutions to real-world problems instead of being used as just another means of making money.