Bitcoin in Brief Monday: Korean Exchange Hack Takes a Toll on Crypto Markets

The news of another hacked South Korean crypto exchange, widely blamed for the drops across the markets, is the main story in today’s edition of Bitcoin in Brief. Other subjects covered include a hospital where you can pay with tokens and a “blockchain” based cultural center established by a gangster.

Also Read: Women’s Interest in Crypto Trading Has Doubled, UK Exchange Reveals

$40 Million Coinrail Hack

Coinrail, a lesser known Korean trading venue, has reportedly been the victim of a hack – costing the clients of the exchange over $40 million worth of ICO tokens. The hacker stole $19.5 million in NPXS (Pundi X’s ICO tokens), $13.8 million of Aston X, $5.8 million in tokens of Dent, over $1.1 million of Tron, and at least five other tokens, all just from exchange users not the projects themselves. In response to the event, Coinrail has announced it suspended trading and moved the remaining 70% of its client assets to cold storage, as well as notified the police. While the figures involved are much smaller than past events, many link this incident to the markets bleeding red over the weekend.

Doctor Satoshi Will See You Now

In much more positive news from South Korea, a hospital in the country’s capital is now accepting tokens as payment. KMP Health Care Seoul, which offers outpatient treatment, health check-ups, stem cell treatments and cosmetic surgeries for locals and foreigners, has begun accepting cryptocurrency according to Business Korea.

“With the aim of introducing medical services to patients of various classes and overseas patients by utilizing the latest blockchain technology, KMP Health Care Seoul has built a system to take LCGCs (Life Care Global Coins issued by GCM) instead of cash,” the hospital staff said. “We plan to continue expanding our services and technology platform to enable many people in Korea to enjoy excellent medical services and help overseas patients easily access Korean medical services,” they added.

Over $10 Million Stolen in Wallet Hack in Japan

Shopin, a universal shopper profile ICO project, has released a statement that the police in Japan has been made aware that a “significant token distributor” was hacked, resulting in a loss of more than $10 million in tokens. According to the statement, this incident took place on June 1st and involved a “Japanese syndicate” that had gathered participants for Shopin’s Token Generation Event using a hot Myetherwallet containing a large amount of various tokens, including Ethereum, Level Up, Orbs, and 61 million Shopin Tokens. Shortly after receiving the allotment of participant tokens, the wallet was hacked by what authorities believe was “someone with credentialed access.”

“We are deeply saddened by this news and send our empathy to all of the Japanese members of our Shopin community who have been affected by this stressful news,” said Eran Eyal, CEO and Co-Founder of Shopin. “We were recently informed that the syndicate lead was not storing our tokens in a cold storage or hardware wallet and that it was clearly vulnerable to an attack. We have taken all immediate measures to have the incident investigated, and we remain hopeful that the informed authorities will be able to trace the trail of the hack.”

Chinese Triad Cultural Center

Wan Kuok-koi, who is described as “a famous gangster in Macau” and commonly known by the nickname ‘Broken Tooth’, has a new venture in the crypto space. According to reports from China, he is planning to “leverage blockchain technology” in order to “build a Chinese cultural town in Cambodia”. This center will serve as headquarters from which the plan is to spread Chinese culture to communities of ethnic Chinese in the diaspora. The triad boss was previously linked by the New York Times to Dragon Coin, the casino gamblers’ ICO token.

Central Bank of Zimbabwe Defends Crypto Ban

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has defended its ban on crypto business in the case of the Golix exchange before the court on Friday. The claim by the RBZ is that it has the authority to order banks to refuse services to the exchange. According to a report from the country, the central bank told the court that: “The Banking Act gives the Bank the powers to supervise banks and prescribes a variety of supervisory actions that the Bank may take as a measure to correct any conduct that may be a threat to the smooth operation of the banking and financial sectors. It is as a result that the Bank directed banks not to deal with the applicant (Bitfinance (Pvt) Ltd) as the latter’s activities were not only unregulated and illegal, but presented all kinds of risks, including but not limited to fraud, money-laundering, evasion of the country’s exchange, terrorism financing” [regulations].

What do you think about today’s news? Were there other reasons for the market drop? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. 

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