Bitcoin is again ironed this weekend under the $ 7,000 mark. While some attribute this decline to the piracy of Coinrail - a platform for South Korean exchange - others believe that this fall would be closely linked to an investigation by the US authorities about possible price manipulation.

Bitcoin at less than $ 6,800

At the time of writing this article, the BTC was trading at less than $ 6,800:

The digital asset had thus lost nearly $ 1,000 in less than 48 hours:

However, Robert Sluymer, Fundstrat's chief technical strategist, said recently that he considered the $ 7,000 threshold to be a "floor price" for Bitcoin.

At the same time, the vast majority of crypto-currencies were in the red - and their cumulative market cap had fallen below the $ 300 billion mark.

The Ether and the Ripple had lost nearly 6% of their value over the past 24 hours, while the Litecoin was dangerously close to the $ 100 mark.

South Korean platform Coinrail reportedly hacked
Coinrail logo According to local media, the South Korean exchange platform Coinrail would have lost this weekend the equivalent of $ 40 million altcoins. Police forces today launched an investigation to determine "whether the loss of cryptocurrencies was caused by hacking or computer network problems".

On Sunday, Coinrail issued a statement on its website:

Two-thirds of the stolen crypto-currencies have been withdrawn or frozen, with the help of the relevant trading platforms and related companies. For the rest, we conduct an investigation with an investigation agency, the relevant trading platforms and the developers of corners

Among the crypto-currencies concerned, we find in particular the Pundi X (NPXS) and the Nper (NPER).

In the process, CoinRail sought the help of the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA). This is what one of the spokespersons of the government agency said:

We launched an investigation immediately after being alerted by the company. We should need about a month to be able to precisely define the causes [of this theft].

Some observers, foremost among which Joseph Young, however, believe that the fall of crypto-markets can not be attributed to the piracy of Coinrail. The expert mentioned the modest size of the platform - a size that would not be enough to cause investors to panic:

This is not the first time that a South Korean platform is misleading the corners of its users. Last year, the site Youbit had lost the equivalent of 20 billion won of Bitcoins (15.8 million euros).

Last January, it was another Asian platform that had succumbed to a hack. The Japanese site Coincheck had then stolen the equivalent of 500 million dollars from XEMs, which led the main trading platforms of the country floor on the establishment of a self-regulatory body.

Fears related to potential manipulation?

Manipulation Last May, it was learned that the US Department of Justice, in collaboration with the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), had opened a criminal investigation to shed light on possible price manipulation of certain digital assets. , especially that of Bitcoin.

On Friday, the US authorities asked four major cryptocurrency trading platforms (Bitstamp, Coinbase, itBit and Kraken) to "share information" related to the orders they were able to take care of.

An initiative that is not to the taste of Jesse Powell, the CEO of Kraken:

If there is the slightest attempt at manipulation, the person behind it takes a lot of risk for an extremely small potential profit.