Bitcoin Hacked: Price Stumbles

網上財富都係信唔過 !

finance.yahoo.com

Online currency bitcoin had 20 percent knocked off its price overnight on Thursday as one of its major exchanges became the victim of a hacking attack leading to a sell-off in the virtual currency after reaching an all-time high.

Uncertainty over other currencies, turmoil in Cyprus and media interest are just some of the reasons commentators are citing for the 360 percent rise in bitcoin prices over the last month. The frenzied interest in bitcoins piled over onto the social media site Twitter and led to a spike in Google searches on the topic.

(Read More: What Is Bitcoin? )

But by Thursday morning bitcoin prices had fallen to $132 from Wednesday's record price of $147.

The most popular bitcoin exchange, Tokyo-based Mt.Gox announced overnight that it had been the victim of a hacking attack after experiencing a severe lag with its systems. The complications meant the price quickly sank to below $115 before regaining ground to $130 by 6.00 a.m. London time on Thursday, according to Bitcoincharts.com.

(Read More: Bitcoin Bubble: How 'Geeks' Sent Prices Parabolic )

"There are many who will try to take advantage of the system. The past few days were a reminder of this sad truth," it said in a press release on its Facebook site.

The exchange blamed a type of hacking attack called a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS).

More than 80 percent of all bitcoin-USD trades and more than 70 percent of all bitcoin currency trades are done on Mt.Gox's servers, according to the company, making it is a major target for anyone wanting to take down bitcoin trading.