A cyberheist at a little-known virtual currency exchange helped wipe billions of dollars off the value of bitcoin
and other digital currencies.
The price of bitcoin slumped more than 7% after South Korea's Coinrail announced that it had been targeted by cyberthieves. In a statement Monday, the exchange said that it had a suffered a security breach in which hackers stole about 30% of its virtual currencies.
Coinrail said it had temporarily suspended trading in digital currencies and was fully cooperating with investigators to try to track down the missing funds. The exchange did not disclose the value of tokens stolen. The theft was of less well-known cryptocurrencies rather than bitcoin itself.
South Korea has emerged as a hotbed for trading in virtual currencies over the last year. Coinrail is one of its less-well-known trading platforms.
Still, the news sent shock waves through virtual currency markets. As well as bitcoin, prices for other commonly traded digital currencies like ethereum also plunged. Nearly $30 billion in cryptocurrency wealth was wiped in about seven hours of trading, according to data provider
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