Bitcoin: How high can it go?
Another day and another record rally for bitcoin, with the cryptocurrency on a seemingly unstoppable upward trajectory despite reports of a security breach at a cryptocurrency-mining service.
Bitcoin climbed above $15,000, a new record, early Thursday morning, but the rally didn’t stop there. At 11:45 a.m. ET, bitcoin was above $19,000 according to Coinbase.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, nearly $70 million of bitcoin was stolen from cryptocurrency-mining service NiceHash following a data breach.
NiceHash’s website is currently down, and on it they have a statement: “Unfortunately, there has been a security breach involving NiceHash website. We are currently investigating the nature of the incident and, as a result, we are stopping all operations for the next 24 hours. Importantly, our payment system was compromised and the contents of the NiceHash Bitcoin wallet have been stolen. We are working to verify the precise number of BTC taken.”
According to NiceHash’s Twitter, the company is regularly conducting maintenance on its website, or is experiencing a delay in submitting payments.
While NiceHash did not indicate the amount of bitcoin impacted in this data breach, the company regularly updates bitcoin payments on “payday Fridays.” Usually, the company reports about 1,000 bitcoin payouts. Last Friday, the company tweeted about a 1,000 bitcoin payout worth $10 million “at this moment.”
Bitcoin opponents have voiced concerns about security and the potential for bitcoins to be stolen. But, this latest hack does not appear to be deterring investors.
The CBOE is scheduled to launch bitcoin futures trading on Dec. 10, and on Dec. 18 the CME will launch bitcoin futures trading.
In a FOX Business interview, Jalak Jobanputra the Founder and Managing Partner at FuturePerfect Ventures and an investor in bitcoin since 2013, noted that when Japan moved to regulate bitcoin, a price increase followed.