Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies were trading down following a crypto exchange hack in South Korea as well as a report in the Wall Street Journal about U.S. regulators' investigation of four major cryptocurrency exchanges regarding potential price manipulation. These include Bitstamp, Coinbase, itBit and Kraken.
The bitcoin sell-off began following the news on Friday, which reignited concerns about the security of lightly regulated crypto exchanges, Bloomberg noted.
Bitcoin went down around 11 percent since Friday. According to coinmarketcap, bitcoin, the largest digital currency, was at $6,819.39 on Monday morning, down 6 percent over 24 hours, with a market cap of $116.52 billion.
Ethereum was down 5.6 percent to $535.47 a coin, and Ripple was down 5.8 percent to $0.59 a coin. Bitcoin Cash was also down 8 percent to $943.03.
Coinrail, a relatively small South Korean exchange, reportedly said Friday that some of its digital currencies appears to have been stolen by hackers, and that it is cooperating with investigators to track down the coins. The company did not reveal the value of the stolen coins, but said it has managed to freeze all exposed NPXS, NPER and ATX coins.
Other cryptocurrencies are now being kept in a cold wallet, making it less vulnerable to theft, it said. Coinrail is said to trade more than 50 different cryptocurrencies.
The market Cap of digital assets tracked by Coinmarketcap.com was $298 as of Monday 5.am ET, compared to about $830 billion in early January.
In late January, nearly $500 million worth digital coins were stolen from Japanese exchange Coincheck Inc., following which regulators around the world started taking strict actions against crypto exchanges.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Business News
May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.