Bitcoin price plunges: Cryptocurrency drops below £5,000, its lowest rate in four months following South Korea exchange hack

Bitcoin has dropped below £5,000, its lowest rate in four months
Sophie Williams13 June 2018

Bitcoin has plunged to its lowest rate in four months following a South Korean exchange hack.

It’s thought that one Bitcoin is now worth as little as $6,370 (£4,775).

The drop in worth comes days after South Korean virtual currency exchange Coinrail confirmed that hackers had stolen $37 million (£27 million) worth of the currency.

Bitcoin has proved to be especially volatile. Last December it hit a record high of $19,783 (£14,794) but just months later it has fallen dramatically.

David Jones, chief market strategist at Capital.com said that Bitcoin is “a classic case of an economic bubble.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that US regulators have asked virtual currency exchanges to provide trading data to aid an investigation into virtual currency manipulation.

The reports raised concerns about the future of virtual currency markets.

The theft at Coinrail is not the first time a digital currency exchange has been broken into.

The most famous example was Mt. Gox, a bitcoin exchange in Tokyo, which was broken into in 2014. Thieves stole $480 million (£359 million) in digital currencies.

Additional reporting by AP

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