Crypto prices undermined by security breaches and fraud reports

Bitcoin fell to its lowest point since February, leading a decline in all of the cryptocurrency prices on Wednesday as lingering concerns over security continued to dog the sector.

Cryptocurrency prices fall to April lows: Shutterstock

Following news over the weekend that South Korean exchange Coinrail had been hacked, came the announcement by Apple that it was banning mining apps from its App Store over concerns that possible malicious mining software could run background mining operations causing rapid battery drain and overheating of mobile devices.

Meanwhile, Japanese police were reported to be investigating the use of Coinhive mining software by alleged fraudsters trying to scam other people into carrying out background mining of monero coins on their computers.

Research paper reports manipulation

In addition to these reports, a research paper from the University of Texas suggests the US dollar-pegged cryptocurrency tether was used to manipulate bitcoin – just as the biggest cryptocurrency was reaching its peak in December.

While cases like these remain rare, such reports have undermined prices in recent trading sessions and in the past two weeks, bitcoin has closed below its 50-, 100- and 200-day moving averages.

It is now nearly 70% below its December peak of close to $20,000. Since its close on Friday, bitcoin has fallen nearly 14%.

Price round up

On Wednesday afternoon, here’s how the top 10 digital currencies stood:

• Bitcoin down 4% at $6,482.90, its lowest since February
• Etherium down 9% at $479.20, its lowest since mid April
• Ripple down 7.4% at $0.54, its lowest since mid April
• Bitcoin cash is 9% lower at $840.75, its lowest since mid April
• Eos fell 6.8% to $9.79, its lowest since mid April
• Litecoin lost 8.7% to $96.24, its lowest since early December
• Stellar lumens shed 8.3% to $0.22, its lowest since mid April
• Cardano lost 8.1% to $0.16, its lowest since mid April
• Iota slid 9.9% to $1.23, its lowest since mid April
• Tron shed 10.7% to $0.04, its lowest since mid April