A drop in crypto values was observed today when Korean Crypto Exchange Coinrail was hacked. Officials confirmed the hacking incident via a tweet. Furthermore, they pledged to keep their customers up to date with further developments through social media and their website. Today LHN observed that their website is down with a ‘system maintenance’ note.
Korean Crypto Exchange Coinrail Hack Confirmed
Earlier on June 10, 2018, crypto markets dropped down with a dip of 14 billion dollars over a few hours. This drop happened suddenly when a South Korean crypto exchange Coinrail suffered an intrusion. Reportedly, a cyber theft caused loss of various altcoins.
Coinrail officials updated the public about this incidence via a tweet.
해킹공격시도로 인한 시스템 점검중입니다. 일부코인(펀디엑스,NPXS)이 확인되었으며 추가적인 코인피해가 있는지 여부를 확인중입니다. 추후 자세한 사항은 재공지하겠습니다 / There has been an cyber intrusion in our system. We're confirming it and some coins(Pundi X, NPXS) are confirmed.
— coinrail (@Coinrail_Korea) June 10, 2018
Coinrail quickly took their website down after noticing the potential theft and began investigations. For now, their website shows a ‘System Maintenance’ notification, according to which, the website will remain down from June 10, 2018, 2 a.m. till 4.00 a.m. on June 11, 2018. During this time, Coinrail officials will assess the extent of damage caused due to this hacking attempt. Nonetheless, they do confirm a loss of some coins (NPXS, Fund X).
However, other updates show that much of the coins are safe as they were moved to cold wallets. Likewise, Coinrail also froze some assets. According to the last update at the time of writing this article, NPER, NPXS, and Aston (ATX) were fully frozen.
Crypto Markets Drop After Coinrail Hack
Right after the news surfaced online, crypto markets witnessed notable drops within a few hours. Bitcoin’s value dropped 6% from the previous $7,600 to $7,200 according to Coinmarketcap. Ethereum also a faced a drop of 5% in its value.
Coinrail is a South Korean crypto exchange that does not hold a significant position in the crypto world yet. At present, it stands 88th among the major crypto exchanges in the world today. Ideally, a theft at a relatively weaker crypto exchange should not impact crypto values. However, considering the speed with which we noticed drops at crypto markets, it seems even minor incidents can significantly affect the crypto world.
