Bitcoin Price Rebounds as Bitfinex Licks Wounds

It’s been quite a ride on the cryptocurrency rollercoaster this summer. The price of Bitcoin has rebounded after the Bitfinex theft caused price to plummet over 20%. It has now rebounded back to around $580 as the exchange has released details of reopening.

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Bitcoin Pares Losses, Bitfinex to Reopen

On August 2, Bitcoin exchange Bitfinex was breached for a loss of roughly $60-70 million worth of cryptocurrency. Official confirmation of the total loss of funds has yet to be announced.

At the same time, the Bitcoin community has been pretty upset about the incident and is concerned about the lack of information the company has provided so far. However, the Hong Kong-based exchange did give an update on August 3, explaining they will be operational in the near future. Their website states:

We are currently in an ongoing process of restoring limited functionality in a secure environment, with full functionality coming afterward in progressive stages. The first step is bringing the site online and allowing users to login and view the state of their accounts. Note that initially trading, deposits, withdrawals, and other core site functionality will be disabled.—To accommodate the relaunch, all withdrawals, open orders, and open funding offers will be canceled. Furthermore, in order to compute losses for relevant parties, settlement must occur in the affected accounts. Margin positions for all pairs will be settled and closed using the following prices, representing the midpoint of the bid and ask on August 2, 2016, at 18:00:00 UTC.

Stolen Bitcoin May Be Given Away

Since the attack took place, a person claiming to be the hacker behind the heist has announced a £450,000 online prize give away. A Redditor named “rekcahxfb,” which spells bfxhacker backwards, told people on the social media forum that in a week 1,000 BTC will be given away to a lucky person who leaves their Bitcoin address.

The user has said to have proven to posses the funds and has sent 10 BTC to a random address to confirm. The hackers offer was also posted to the BitcoinTalk forum with over a hundred people replying and leaving their addresses. Some have speculated that this could be a master plan to basically send the money to themselves as the hacker could leave their own address and pretend to be giving it away.

With the community reeling over this latest incident spirits seem to be rising back as the price of Bitcoin pushed closer to the $600 range meeting resistance at $575. A robust rebound from the day before’s drop to $480.

Charts show that an uptrend began yesterday afternoon with both volume and buy pressure increasing. Furthermore, Bitcoin.com reported yesterday that investors have not been deterred. The investment publication Seeking Alpha even stated that the “the latest Bitcoin hack presents a buying opportunity.”

Buyers Are Back in Action

The twelve-hour chart from last night’s trading sessions shows a triangular pattern forming with a floor of $560 to sell walls in the $575 upper range. If the price can maneuver past this trend line pattern, it could possibly get back into the $600 range and above. However, bears may be lurking and momentum could quickly reverse if more bad news is received from Bitfinex.

The mainstream media did roll out many stories about the heist. Fortunately, most of them got it right this time by blaming the exchange factor rather than alluding to Bitcoin itself.

All in all, it is safe to say the past few weeks of stability or “perma-bull state” has left the building. But while there still could be some rough seas ahead for long term traders, significant arbitrage opportunities are now in play for day traders and speculators.

What do you think about the price of Bitcoin rebounding? Do you think Bitfinex will reveal the official numbers of loss? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Kaiko Charts, Pixabay, Bitfinex

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