Bitcoin latest: North Korea suspected of South Korean cryptocurrency exchange hack

Bitcoin‘s rapid descent gathered pace on Friday as the cryptocurrency crashed below $11,000 (£8,200). Bitcoin’s price has fallen more than 40 per cent from its record high of nearly $20,000 (£14,950) set at the start of the week.

The price of the digital currency fell as low as $10,891 on Friday afternoon, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index.

It has been a volatile month for the cryptocurrency which has surged in value from under $1,000 at the start of the year.

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21 December - North Korea is being investigated for possible involvement in a massive cyber-attack on a South Korean currency exchange this week.

The Youbit exchange shut down and collapsed into bankruptcy on Tuesday after hackers stole 17 per cent of its assets.

Police investigators and the Korea Internet and Security Agency are viewing the case as an extension of the April attack, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the investigation. Authorities said they are open to all other possibilities besides the Pyongyang regime, the person said on Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal reported that investigators believed the Youbit attack bore the hallmarks of a North Korean hack.

The price of bitcoin fell from close to $19,000 to around $16,300 on Tuesday after news of the security breach broke.

North Korea has built up an army of hackers, thought to be 1,700-strong. They are suspected of carrying out a range of attacks, including the "WannaCry" malware attack that affected hundreds of thousands of computers around the world and devastated NHS IT systems in May.
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The US publicly blamed North Korea for WannaCry earlier this week, while British government ministers have said that it is "all but certain" North Korea was responsible.

The Youbit hack is the latest security breach to hit bitcoin and other cryptocurrency exchanges.

Last week, almost $64bn of bitcoin was stolen by hackers who broke into the NiceHash marketplace in Slovenia.

That followed a $31m theft of rival cryptocurrency tether, last month.

20 December - Cryptocurrency dealer Youbit became a casualty of hackers.

The South Korean exchange will close and enter bankruptcy proceedings after a cyberattack at about 4:35 am local time, its owner, Yapian, said on Tuesday in a statement. About 17 per cent of total assets were lost. The heist follows a previous “accident´´ in April, after which Yapian said it encouraged clients to keep their tokens in a safer form.

South Korea has emerged as a sort of ground zero for the global crypto-mania. So many Koreans have embraced bitcoin that the prime minister recently warned that cryptocurrencies might corrupt the nation’s youth.

Bitcoin price surge leads to new computer hacking fears

The craze has spread so far that, in Korea, bitcoin is trading at a premium over prevailing international rates.

“There were no additional losses, as other coins were in the cold wallet,” Yapian said. While it suspended coin and cash deposit and withdrawals as of 2 pm local time, it said about 75 percent of assets could be safely withdrawn by clients.

Bitcoin hit a record high of $19,666 on Sunday in the lead up to exchange giant CME Group’s launch of its bitcoin futures. It has since lost about a third of its value.

It was not immediately clear what caused the sudden fall in price.

The success of bitcoin has led to a rise in in rival cryptocurrencies and competition in the market is heating up.

Stephen Innes, head of trading in Asia-Pacific for retail FX broker Oanda in Singapore, told Reuters that there have been moves out of bitcoin into Bitcoin Cash, a clone of the original cryptocurrency.

“Most of it is unsophisticated retail traders getting burned badly,” Mr Innes said on bitcoin’s recent retreat.