Some warned that the latest hack attack which caused the average price to drop under $530 for the first time since June might cause many Bitcoin owners and potential investors to lose faith in the most popular crypto-currency.
On the other hand, we predicted that the cyber-theft will have no long term consequences. And it turns out we were right as the price has already consolidated and is already at about $580. It is still not up to the level it was before the attack, which was above $600, but it is getting there. It has to be noted that the price increased by more than $50 in less than two days.
Price Steady Around $580 Today
Today the price reached $587, before dropping back to $580 and for the past few hours it remained pretty stable with very few fluctuations. The good news is that the market cap is again above $9 billion. It is still too early to predict when we can expect the price to reach $600 again, but that scenario is definitely not too far off.
The traded volume isn’t as high as it was in the first 24 hours after the hack attack when many owners were desperately looking to sell, but the price increase definitely encouraged traders and the volume in the last 24 hours is above $110 million.
The Bitcoin is recovering quickly and there are quite strong indications that it might not be too long before we see the price rise up to $650 again. The stochastic is going up, but the difference between the moving averages is increasing, which shows that things are still a bit unstable.
Four New Bitcoin ATMs Installed in the US
It is very likely that the Bitfinex will make potential investors a lot more cautious. On the plus side, it is almost certain that improved security measures will be introduced in the future and that Bitcoin investments will be a lot safer.
A lot has been done to improve security since Tokyo-based Mt. Gox collapsed two years ago, but hackers always target the weakest link of the system and in the case of Bitfinex they managed to steal a pretty large amount of Bitcoins, 0.75% of the total number of Bitcoins in circulation.
Bitcoin owners who were robbed expect at least some compensation and a representative of Bitfinex has stated that the company expected the losses to be socialised. That statement is still quite vague though and Bitfinex has yet to explain what it will mean for Bitcoin owners in practice. Will all Bitcoin owners lose a bit, in order to ensure that nobody loses the full amount of Bitcoins they had, or does it mean that the Bitfinex expects the community to show solidarity with those that were robbed? Either way, owners are hoping that they won’t suffer great losses.
Despite the security issues, Bitcoin presence is increasing in the USA. It has been reported that Coinscource, a Bitcoin ATM Network, now has four new ATMs in Philadelphia, Staten Island and Las Vegas and now is not only the largest, but also the operator with the biggest geographical coverage in the country.