South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinrail has reported a hacking incident that leads to a theft of over 2.6 billion Pundi X (NPXS) and a host of other Ethereum-based virtual tokens. This hack was not taken very well by crypto traders which has led a sell-off making crypto markets loose nearly 20 billion dollars in just a few hours.

PundiX comes to help as Coinrail freezes

As the hack was detected, Coinrail froze Pundi X (NPXS), as well as NPER (NPER) and Artex Coin (ATX). Whilst inspection procedures continue to be carried out, Coinrail has made their website inaccessible. The exchange termed this hack as a ‘cyber intrusion’ and also confirmed that its Pundi X (NPXS) suffering losses using its twitter handle. They currently estimate a wait of 26 hours before this inspection is complete (i.e., 02:00 KST Sunday – 04:00 KST Monday).

Assisting Coinrail with their investigative process, Pundi X announced that they’d halt their NPXS transactions until 18:00:00 SGT (GMT+8) on Sunday night; a time window of roughly six and a half hours.

With both token and exchange to coming to rescue, looks like the investigation is expected to be faster and preventive measure could be taken in time.

Also, read: Research Reveals 75% of Crypto Exchange Lack Sufficient Customer Background Check

Markets meltdown to its fragility

As the uninvited news spread to investors across the globe, the entire cryptocurrency market saw a strong selling activating the bears, with ~$20 billion being wiped off from the total market cap within hours.

Over the past 24 hours, EOS (EOS) and IOTA (IOTA) have been the hardest hit among altcoins, down 10.9 percent and 13.4 percent, respectively. Among frontliners, Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a drop of 5.6 percent while Ethereum and Ripple dropped 6.18% and 7.55% respectively.

Given that Coinrail is a relatively low-volume crypto exchange the impulsive selling indicates a high-level market’s fragility. This fragility is a result of weak market sentiment created by FUD and uncertainty regarding laws and regulations on how crypto assets will be treated by most nations. Because of this sentiment, any news that is negative in nature is being punished.

This kind of hacks definitely dent the investor sentiments and 2018 has already seen enough of it. With uncertainty looming and exchanges been attacked, people are slowly becoming cautious in their investment in cryptos.

Will this bearish sentiment continue to loom or will crypto stakeholders come out stronger giving investors and others confidence in the technology that has the potential to change the world? Do let us know your view on the same.

About Author

Nilesh Maurya

Nilesh Maurya has been associated for past 8 years as an Investment Banker with Omega Capital, a bespoke Investment Banking outfit having offices in Mumbai, New York, Singapore, and Dubai. He has been a regular contributor to business publications such as Business India and Market Express and has been a mentor to many start-up companies. Nilesh Maurya has been associated for past 8 years as an Investment Banker with Omega Capital, a bespoke Investment Banking outfit having offices in Mumbai, New York, Singapore, and Dubai. He has been a regular contributor to business publications such as Business India and Market Express and has been a mentor to many start-up companies. Follow him on Twitter at @KoinKing1 or connect with me on linkedin.