A hacker attack on a crypto exchange in South Korea causes unrest. Since the beginning of the year, the Bitcoin price has plummeted by more than 50 percent.

Cryptocurrency currencies around the world have come under heavy pressure on the week-end after a hacker attack on a trading center in Seoul. Bitcoin’s share price — the world’s best-known digital currency leader — lost more than 10 percent, slipping well below $ 7,000. Thus, the losses of recent weeks widened significantly. Since the beginning of the year, the Bitcoin price has plummeted by more than 50 percent.

Bitcoin: Security issues of a trading center are triggers

As often happened recently, security issues at a cryptocurrency trading center were the catalyst for the price losses. This time, a comparatively small trading center was affected by the South Korean provider Conrail. The problems there show, however, according to experts, once again the fundamental security risks when trading cryptocurrencies.

A Bitcoin last cost around $ 6,700, about twelve percent less than on Friday evening. From highs around the $ 20,000 from December 2017, the Bitcoin is now around 200 percent away. By the end of last year, billions had flowed into the cryptocurrency market.

Also Ether, Ripple and Bitcoin Cash on a descent

In addition, some established and traditional stock market operators have introduced products to Bitcoin that also allow them to make money on falling prices. The Bitcoin was thus easier to trade and has arrived a bit more on the financial markets. At the beginning this had still fueled the rally — but since mid-December, it’s going downhill.

On Monday not only the Bitcoin, but also many other virtual currencies like Ether, Ripple or Bitcoin Cash fought with problems. The total value of cryptocurrencies slipped to a two-month low of $ 292 billion, according to Coinmarketcap.com calculations — at the height of cryptocurrency mania, the market had a volume of more than $ 800 billion.