Bitcoin Recovers Above $6,700 Following Bithumb Attack

Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies prices recovered on Thursday following a hacking attack that targeted South Korea’s Bithumb exchange on Wednesday.

Bitcoin was trading at $6,780.7 by 12:05AM ET (04:05 GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange, up 2.4% over the previous 24 hours.

Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, gained 4.1% at $542.27 on the Bitfinex exchange.

Ripple’s XRP token climbed 2.4% to $0.54585 on the Poloniex exchange.

Meanwhile, Litecoin rose 2.2% to $98.35.

Bitcoin fell by as much as $200 on Wednesday following news of a security breach of South Korea-based exchange Bithumb. The exchange announced on Wednesday morning in Asia that it has been hacked and 35 billion won (US$31.5 million) worth of virtual coins were stolen.

The crypto exchange said it had migrated outstanding crypto balances to cold storage and said it would cover all losses so its clients would not be affected, although they would not be able to move their assets at the moment as all deposits and withdrawals are now suspended.

The incident marked the second time a South Korean exchange had been hacked this month. Less than two weeks ago, Coinrail lost approximately $37.2 million worth of coins following a hacking attack. Meanwhile, Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck lost more than $500 million to hackers in January.

Elsewhere, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is considering to launch a full-scale crypto trading operation, according to COO David Solomon.

“We are clearing some futures around bitcoin, talking about doing some other activities there, but it’s going very cautiously,” Solomon said during an interview in China, as reported by CCN. “We’re listening to our clients and trying to help our clients as they’re exploring those things too.